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EDUCATION AND THE 
GENERAL WELFARE 



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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALI.AS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



EDUCATION AND THE 
GENERAL WELFARE 

A TEXTBOOK 

OF 

SCHOOL LAW, HYGIENE, AND 
MANAGEMENT 



BY 



FRANK K. SECHRIST, Ph.D. 

Professor of Education, University of Cincinnati 



il3eto gotfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1920 

All rights reserved 



/ 



%' 



Copyright, 1920, 

By the macmillan company 



Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1920. 



t^^ti I 7 1920 



©Ci.A566086 



TO 

Ed. 4b and Ed. 29, U. C, '18 and '19 



PREFACE 

This book is an outgrowth of classroom work in a course 
of school law, hygiene, and management, as offered to 
juniors in preparation for teaching and to others who in 
pursuit of liberal studies regard a knowledge of this subject- 
matter as essential to intelligent citizenship. 

As a text-book in management, its central theme is the 
school as a part of community life and the individual child 
as the dominant interest of the school. It aims to extend 
the scope of the subject beyond its traditional limits, the 
four walls of the schoolhouse. Since the public school can- 
not lead a cloistered existence but must register an appre- 
ciable effect upon the community of which it forms a part, 
it cannot afford to ignore the forces of indifference from 
without that may nullify its every effort. A study of the 
causes of illiteracy, child labor, and non-attendance, and 
opposition to them, is a part of the campaign against igno- 
rance. 

But while aiming to give a comprehensive view of the 
whole school situation, the book considers at the same time 
the everyday problems of the schoolroom and the details 
of pupil management. However, the principles of dis- 
cipline held to, it is hoped, will be found not altogether pe- 
culiar to the school but also applicable in the home and 
equally useful for self -management in the conduct of life 
anywhere. For the general guiding principle is that of hy- 
giene, and this as applied to the mental and moral as well 
as to the physical realm. The policy of preventing ills 



viii Preface 

is, however, regarded as complementary to that of provid- 
ing the means and opportunities for positive character 
growth in all the activities of school life. The concept of 
health is regarded as applicable to every kind of function- 
ing, and moral values are kept in mind even before the dis- 
tinct beginning of moral responsibility in the school child. 
In the application of psychological principles to the matter 
of establishing favorable attitudes, school management en- 
ters a promising field. From this point of view, it will gain 
a clearer and larger psychological content and more and 
more stress conditions of learning as distinguished from 
methods of teaching. 

The teacher and the class, of which the largest school 
systems are but multiples, is, of course, the typical situa- 
tion of management held in mind throughout the book. It 
is not addressed to the administrator, but its subject-matter 
is related to those general aspects of management that every 
teacher should appreciate in order to be in a position to co- 
operate intelligently in measures that seek the highest good 
of the school system by way of the classroom. While the 
elementary school, as the most numerous of all schools, is 
frequently referred to throughout the text, the book was 
prepared for use in classes in which all the teachers of a 
complete system may be represented. 

The book covers a wide range and does not aim at com- 
pleteness in any direction. All its topics should, however, 
stimulate inquiry and further discussion. The statistical 
tables, in some cases given without textual comment, will in 
themselves offer data for supplementary work of this char- 
acter. Thus the work which is here mapped out to cover a 
three-hour course for half a college year, may be expanded 
so as to provide material for twice this scope. 



Preface ix 

In the list of books and pamphlets given under the head 
of Selected References, certain important titles that may 
seem to have been ignored will in nearly all instances be 
found included in the bibliographies of one or more of the 
references in the list. The references in the text are cited 
as authority for the statements made or to suggest further 
study from the same or a different point of view. 

The writer acknowledges obligations in general to his 
colleagues, his students, and to teachers of Cincinnati and 
vicinity, incurred both before and after the purpose to 
write a book had been formed. More particularly, to Dean 
William P. Burris, of the College for Teachers, University 
of Cincinnati, is due the original suggestion that the course 
out of which the book has grown be planned to provide 
information necessary to the fulfillment of certain state re- 
quirements for a teachers' life certificate. When the work 
began to take final form, he made a critical reading of the 
manuscript, and he gave much encouragement all along the 
toilsome way. Others who made criticisms and suggestions 
or assisted in other helpful ways were Miss Frances 
Jenkins, assistant professor in the College for Teachers, 
Whitelaw Reid Morrison, M.D., professor of physical edu- 
cation. University of Cincinnati, Principal George H. 
Shafer, of the Willimantic (Conn.) State Normal School, 
and the writer's wife, Anna Eldon Sechrist. But the author 
alone remains responsible for the content of the work and 
its organization, and for any errors that may have escaped 
correction. 

F. S. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, 
November, 1919. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

The General Welfare i 

The resources of the mind — The content aim of education 

— The formal aim of school work — Maximurn and minimum 
aims — Illiteracy — The allegiance of the spirit — Measures 
to reduce or wipe out illiteracy for the sake of the children — 
Americanization of immigrant children — The future of Amer- 
ican school children — Educational " Faddism " — Use of con- 
crete things as a source of knowledge and skill — Ideals of 
recreation — Ideals of achievement — " Internal improvement " 

— The means of education. 

CHAPTER II 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 24 

A healthy local sentiment for education — A national senti- 
ment — Federal aid to schools — Land grants in support of 
higher education — Morrill Law — Direct appropriations from 
the United States treasury — Agricultural Extension Law — 
Vocational Education Law — Full Time and Part Time Indus- 
trial Schools — Federal aid for education as proposed — Other 
sources of support. 

CHAPTER III 
Distribution of Emphasis 38 

The total cost of education in the United States for the year 
1916 — Expenses of special schools — Distribution of expenses 
in state and city systems — Number of pupils per teacher — 
Financial return to the teacher — Total expense per pupil — 
Classified expenditures per child in average attendance — Sal- 
aries of teachers per pupil in average attendance — Crowding 
in the elementary school — Method of distribution of school 
funds. 

CHAPTER IV 

Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 50 

The meaning of childhood — Neural basis of work and 
play — Immediate and remote effects of child labor — Child 

xi 



xiv Contents 

CHAPTER XII p^CB 

Why Children Are Dull 183 

Chronic disease and physical defects — Levels of efficiency — 
The unwilling and the incapable — Indifference and dullness 
— Mental consequences of physical defects — Effect of con- 
sciousness of weakness — Medical diagnosis and education — 
School health, a permanent national service — Defects of the 
respiratory system — Defects of the digestive system — Dis- 
eased teeth and retardation — Brushing and cleansing the 
teeth — Malnutrition — Malnutrition and dullness — Rachitic 
effects — School feeding — Impoverished blood — Anemia — 
Anemia and dullness — Sense defects — Hearing — Hearing 
tests — Impaired hearing and dullness — Symptoms of defect- 
ive hearing — Symptoms of eye strain — Standard size of 
letters — Conservation of vision in school — Speech defects — 
Speech defects and retardation — Cure of speech defects — 
Mental types of stutterers — Summary. 

CHAPTER XIII 
Original Assets of Character 209 

By way of transition — Pupil management — The child's 
initial equipment — Original tendencies — The impulse to act 

— The impulse to resist — Tendency to dispel feelings of ill- 
will — Tne impulse to render service — The impulse to take 
the initiative and assume responsibility — The impulse of 
children to seek companionship — Desire for the approval of 
the group — The desire to cooperate — The natural hunger of 
the senses — A desire to get on — The desire for completed 
action — A desire for results — The impulse to strive — The 
direction of development. 

CHAPTER XIV 
Problem of the Emotions 222 

Study of the emotions — Personal reactions — Continuity 
of emotion — Affective displacement — The unwilling pupil — 
Emotion and object — Development of likes and dislikes — Ani- 
mals and flowers — Symbols and emotions — Good and evil 

— Emotional excess — A study of cases — Excessive fears — 
Children conceal their fears — Fear as a means of discipline 

— Fears dissolved by understanding — Anger — Nervous in- 
stability—Influence of the teacher — Excessive inhibition — 
Summary. 



Contents xv 

CHAPTER XV ,^<,, 

Factors in Self-Control 246 

Reasons for study of exceptional child — The self-con- 
trolled — Study of means of self-control — Instinctive support 

— Desire to be a man — A controlling interest — Self-control 
and leadership — Imagination and character ^ — Imitation of 
ideals — A critical point of the imagination — Daydreaming — 
Falsifying — Summary. 

CHAPTER XVI 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 258 

An attitude favorable to the work of the school — The cheer- 
ful attitude — The right use of the mind — The attitude of 
attention — The child's attention — Bodily positions and think- 
ing — Thinking under difficulties — Concentrated and distrib- 
uted attention — Causes of mental inefficiency — How mental 
power is weakened — Thinking of self — The practice of think- 
ing in school — Substitutes for thinking — Memory for words 

— Memory of words a means to higher ends — Memory of facts 

— Memory for relations — Steps in development of thinking 

— The spirit of inquiry is essential to thinking — Tone and 
tempo of the teacher's questioning — Consecutive thinking — 
Constructive type of thinking — Constructive use of knowledge 

— What the mind is for — Control of attention — Attention 
follows interest — Interest follows attention — Inner and outer 
factors of attention — Concentration weakened by deadly still- 
ness — Concentration weakened by impulse to be active — 
Concentration weakened by anticipation and memories — Chief 
sign of mental strength — Mistakes in double-track thinking — 
Exercise to increase power of concentration — The divided 
attention — Indecision — Importance of being certain — Inde- 
cision as reflected in school work — Home training in inde- 
cision — Facing and settling problems — The hygiene and dis- 
cipline of the mind. 

CHAPTER XVII 
The Individual and the Group 284 

Limitations of freedom — The teacher in relation to the 
school — The school an organic unit — Danger in the strong 
personality — Teacher's duty to the group — Training for 
group activity — From family to school — Group efficiency re- 
quires system — Distinguishing constants and variables — The 
appeal to reason — The individual and the group in class work 

— Individual vs. Class teaching — Individual and social ele- 
ments in the formal recitation — Value of class criticism — 



xvi Contents 

PAGE 

Establishing class standards — Cooperative class work — 
Weakening initiative and power of attack —- Group prepara- 
tion — Intellectual and social value of intensive class work — 
Loss of individual in the group — Group consistency — Pro- 
motion and grading — Where the trouble begins — Appointed 
time for promotion — Keeping the group consistent — Group 
organizations. 

CHAPTER XVIII 
The Work of the School Day 302 

Principles of program making — Time distribution — A rural 
school program — Method of alternation — The formal reci- 
tation in school programs — The teacher's time — Original 
function of the oral recitation — Recitation as related to sub- 
ject matter — Importance of the day's work — The essential 
factors of school work — Too many impressions — Too few 
impressions — Over-elaboration — Want of elaboration — 
Empty language — Cross-purposes in the recitation — Modern 
program requirements — Organizing a program — A suggested 
departure from the recitation program — Organization within 
the time periods — Organization between the period:^ — Di- 
rected study — Departmental programs. 

CHAPTER XIX 
The Play Instinct in School Work 328 

Play jnd the development of the self — Second and third 
stage — General agreements and differences between work and 
play — Types of activity, play — When play becomes work — 
Plot-interest in play — Plot-interest in a ball — Heightened 
plot-interest — Feeling of responsibility — The quitter — Sum- 
mary — Play as mental hygiene — The play illusion — Con- 
structive activity, play and work — Work — Other forms of 
play — Amusement — Dawdling — Relation of the scientific in- 
terest to the drudgery of work — Mental parallels of physical 
types of work — Summary, How to vitalize school work. 

CHAPTER XX 

Food and Sleep 347 

Prophylaxis — Food — Food campaigns — Theory and prac- 
tice — How a teacher may know whether a child is well-nour- 
ished — Nutrition depends not on food alone — Sleep — The 
amount of sleep — Quality of sleep — Quality of sleep an effect 
— Sleep and home conditions — John Locke on sleep — Effect 
of too much sleep — The cause of sleep and cure of sleepless- 
ness. 



Contents xvii 

CHAPTER XXI p^cg 

Recreation 363 

Benefits of play — Value of open air recreation — Universal 
play impulse — The modern Olympic games — Physical fitness 
as a patriotic duty — Exercises in physical training — Play- 
ground interests — Organization of play — Play in the coun- 
try — Play in the city — Sports in the elementary school — A 
scale of play values — Revelations of a play census. 

CHAPTER XXn 
Auxiliary Agencies 380 

Modern needs — Cooperation of the home — How to win 
parents — The parent-teacher association — Possible influence 
of such organizations — Every school needs a laboratory — 
The home as a source of projects — Little Mothers' leagues — 
The National Children's Bureau — School gardening — School 
savings banks — Civics clubs — The Scouts organizations — The 
social center — The unit of democracy — The school needs 
the social center — Child welfare a universal interest — The 
promise of the profession. 

APPENDIX 
Standardizing Requirements 397 

Statutory definitions of schools — The kindergarten as a part 
of the public school system — Merging the kindergarten and 
the elementary school — Definition of an elementary school 

— Classification of elementary schools — Graded schools — 
Consolidated schools — Definition and classification of high 
schools — Time units — Types of high school courses — 
Methods of raising standards in elementary and high schools 

— Plan of standardization adopted and used by Montana 
State Department of Education — Score card for city school 
buildings — A suggested score card for schools in small cities, 
villages, and consolidated districts. 



LIST OF CHARTS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



CHART 

I 

II 

III 

IV 

V 

VI 

VII 

Vila 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

XIV 

XV 

XVI 

XVII 

XVIII 

XIX 

XX 

XXI 

.XXII 

XXIII 



The percentage of illiterates in the states . 
Future occupations of American children . 
Appropriations for vocational education . 
Total cost of education in the U. S. for 1916 . 
Expenditure for education in the states 

Classified expenditures in cities 

Salaries of teachers per pupil, etc 

Child labor in American cities ...... 

Average length of school terms in the states . 

Reasons for non-attendance 

Grade distribution in Ohio 

Comparison of wages of children .... 
Mean hourly range of temperature .... 
Comparative reduction in mortality .... 

Seasonal diseases 

Seasonal diseases 

Physical examinations of school children in Chi 

cago 

Medical examination of school children in Cincin 

nati 

Causes of rejection for military service 

Grade distribution of lispers and stutterers 

Time distribution by subjects and grades . 

One-teacher rural school recitation program 

A flexible program for 5th and 6th grade . 

A flexible program for 2nd grade . . . 
xix 



PAGE 
II 

17 
32 

40 

42-3 

46 

47 
57 
68-9 

74 

89 

93-4 
125 
163 
177 
178 

185 

187-8 
189-0 
206 
303-4 

305 
321-2 

323-4 



XX List of Charts and Illustrations 

CHART PAGE 

XXIV A flexible program for 4th and 5th grade . . . 325-6 

XXV Height and weight table for boys 353 

XXVI Height and weight table for girls 354-5 

XXVII A play census 377-S 

FIGURE 

1 An approved type of city school building . facing 95 

2 A modern one-room school building 97 

2a Plan of 2 98 

3-4 A one-story school building with floor plan .... 100 

5 Basement floor plan of 3 loi 

6 Plan of school grounds 104 

7 Effect of location of inlets and outlets 127 

8 Diagram of psychic activity 311 

9 Weighing a child facing 355 



EDUCATION AND THE GENERAL 
WELFARE 

CHAPTER I 
The General Welfare 

It is at all times the paramount purpose of good govern- 
ment to promote the general welfare. A wide diffusion 
of knowledge among the people has from the beginning of 
our history been furthered by various acts of legislation 
as a means to this end. While to develop and conserve 
the country's resources and foster a widely distributed ma- 
terial prosperity is a moral obligation, it has always been 
our political philosophy that a nation's greatness is not 
ultimately in mines and forests and prairies, but in the 
character of the people, in their ideas and sentiments; and 
that its power is not in armies and navies, but in the invisible 
ideals for which men and women are willing to lay down 
their lives. 

To support a system of schools for all the people for the 
purpose of cultivating ideals and developing character is a 
national political strategy of the first order. It is the per- 
manent line of the national defense. It is a nation's insur- 
ance against death by stagnation or destruction by violence. 
It is a vital part of the national economy. Public education 
is our common cause, however people may differ in party 
politics or religion. It is a means of organizing the per- 



2 Education and the General Welfare 

manent forces of American life. In its broader mission 
it reaches three generations : the group of children in school, 
their parents, and, in the course of time, the generation to 
come — all in one message that goes home. 

The Resources of the Mind. The wealth of a nation 
is human. The ultimate resources of the individual and 
the nation for both happiness and prosperity are within. 
That happiness does not depend on material wealth, that 
it is the mind that makes the body rich, that who would 
be free must free his mind from sordid passions, must love 
virtue and justice and be an active champion of righteous- 
ness — all these are familiar truths of the literature of 
freedom and the moral basis of good citizenship. 

But to these lessons of democracy must now be added 
that the resources of material prosperity and national de- 
fense are also of the mind, that when the forces of a nation 
are summoned to meet a great crisis it is not enough to 
be schooled in the abstract principles of freedom and duties 
of citizenship. Now what a man has done or can do in 
times of peace is called into service. Now it will appear 
whether his body is strong and alert to serve the will and 
what his training in other respects has prepared him to 
offer.i 

Our country has passed through several stages of eco- 

1 " The most formidable institution we had to fight in Germany was 
not the arsenals of Krupp or the yards in which they turned out sub- 
marines, but the schools of Germany. They were our most formidable 
competitors in business and our most terrible opponents in war. An 
educated man is a better worker, a more formidable warrior, and a 
better citizen. That was only half comprehended before the war." — 
Lloyd-George in a speech at Manchester, as reported in the Survey. 
November 9, 19 18. 



The General Welfare 3 

nomic development. The first was a period of exploration 
of the vast domain, the age of the pioneer and of individual 
enterprise. The next was the period of exploitation and 
waste, of individual and collective enterprise. Before the 
World War we had already entered upon the present period 
of cooperative enterprise, of organization and conservation 
of our resources. We had come to the bounds of the 
geographical frontier and had come to see our limits in 
all directions. The beginning of the War revealed a lack 
of industrial unity, a limited food supply, a congested trans- 
portation system, and a national spirit diluted by many 
diverse racial elements. We learned that there is a national 
physiology as well as a national psychology. The War in- 
tensified and accelerated the conservation movement. It 
was found that, while our resources are great, they are 
exhaustible and that there are limits to our fabulous wealth. 
The multi-millionaire could have financed the War for only 
a few days. The failure of one year's crop of wheat would 
have jeopardized the fruits of civil liberty gained in cen- 
turies of conflict. 

To make more of our material resources, we must fall 
back on the resources of the mind. These are by their na- 
ture inexhaustible. We must keep extending the intellectual 
frontier. " For the prevention of waste the most effective 
means will be found in the increase and diffusion of knowl- 
edge, from which is sure to result an aroused public senti- 
ment demanding prevention." ^ 

For the increase of production we depend also on educa- 
tional development. The animal adapts himself to the en- 
vironment; man adapts the environment to himself. A 

1 From the Report of the National Conservation Commission, 1900. 



4 Education and the General Welfare 

country possesses material resources only in so far as the 
intelligence and skill of the people can make them available. 
The soil is fertile only as it can be made to yield profitable 
crops. Deposits of iron and coal are rich only as related 
to useful industry. The nitrogen of the air has no com- 
mercial value unless we have the science to extract it. The 
natural wealth of a country affords but a scant subsistence 
to an ignorant people. If they cannot rise to their coun- 
try's opportunities they may become the victims of con- 
quest or of peaceful penetration. The mind of a people 
is the chief source of wealth as all other resources depend 
on its productive power. 

" Tilling the soil even with so perfected a tool as( a good spade, 
it would take 560 seasons to turn over a square mile of land, 640 
acres. A man with a team and good plow can do it in 4 seasons. 
Twelve men with three mechanical tractors and fifty-one plows in 
a gang can turn it over in 36 hours. 

" At $2.00 a day, man power costs per horse power, $54,000 per 
year of 7,500 hours. In a small gasoline engine it costs $300 a 
year per horse power; for large power installations, whether 
steam, gas, or electrical, it costs from $20 a year up to $200 per 
horse power. Man power costs therefore from 135 to 1,350 times 
as much as uncarnate power. 

" On the average each adult man is supplemented by 22 me- 
chanical slaves whose keep averages less than one four-hundredth 
of his own value of $2.00 a day." ^ 

To increase production and conservation and use of the 
product is the constant problem of the world's growing 
population. In all the universe the mind of man is the only 
means of solving it. 

1 Emerson : " Twelve Principles of Efficiency," New York, 1916, p. 
vii-ix. 



The General Welfare 5 

The Content Aim of Education. It is the function of 
the school primarily to teach that knowledge which the race 
has found necessary to its continued existence is content- 
ment and happiness, and to discover the place in the social 
economy of individual capabilities. All this includes the 
conservation of life and health, the protection and care of 
property, and the promotion of industry and thrift. To 
aid in securing the power of self-support is the irreducible 
minimum of what the school must do for every child. 
And this for self-respect and moral development as well as 
for the prosperity and security of the state. 

But the aims of education cannot be justly phrased in so 
brief a way. There are maximum and minimum aims ac- 
cording to individual capacities. And not all desirable 
knowledge is of equal importance. What is of first im- 
portance is not necessarily the first to acquire. There are 
five major interests which popular education must to a cer- 
tain extent satisfy. They come in the following order of 
importance : -^ I. Economic independence. II. Care of 
offspring. III. The Social interest. IV. The Political in- 
terest. V. The Interests of Leisure. Health is funda- 
mental to all. 

It is evident that the power to supply an economic need 
in a community takes precedence of all other interests. To 
be able to make a living comes first. If the ability to pro- 
vide for himself food, clothing, and shelter without as- 
sistance fails a young man, he should refrain from entering 
the relation which brings responsibility for the second (II). 
If he is an economic charge he cannot become a social bless- 

1 Spencer, Herbert: "Education," New York, 1900, chap. I, D. Ap- 
pleton and Company. 



6 Education and the General Welfare 

ing (III). And as for the fourth (IV), only when one has 
attained the first (I) can he properly concern himself with 
the political rights of a freeman. Any one who can make 
an honest living will readily comprehend the ordinary duties 
of citizenship, even though he have meager scholastic at- 
tainments. On the other hand, one might be well versed in 
the theory of government and yet be a menace to the state 
if that is his only means of support. Finally, the interests 
of leisure (V) are only for him who by his industry and 
thrift has accumulated a surplus over and above the cost of 
food, clothing, and shelter, and has earned his leisure. 

Accumulations of wealth represent the power of leisure 
derived from productive labor, and the value of the wealth 
in any case depends on how the leisure afforded is employed. 
A certain amount of leisure is the inalienable right of the 
humblest person. The way it is spent will in all cases meas- 
ure the value of the energy and thrift that earned it. 

In a general way, under the first head (I) comes the 
money-making enterprise. This is related to the others in 
so far as it supplies certain of their indispensable material 
needs. But the others in their own province are not pri- 
marily fields for the accumulation of wealth, although in an 
advanced state of society service in them may be prepared 
for by special training and used as a means of gaining a live- 
lihood. For example, care of offspring is the parent's duty. 
He owes it to the child, the community, and the state. A 
part of this service has become so large that it must be dele- 
gated to trained assistants ; and it has become so important 
that the state now usually takes the place of the parent, as a 
means of making its own future secure. But if the sole 
object of any of the agencies engaged in this work is not 



The General Welfare 7 

the supreme good of the child, the common sense of hu- 
manity condemns the process as wicked exploitation. 

And service to the community and to the state to be hon- 
orable must be free and non-remunerative. To be a good 
citizen one must be a good neighbor and give his time freely 
for the good of the community. To receive money for a 
vote or hold office to accumulate wealth is civic treason. A 
paid representative of the people in any capacity receives a 
supposed equivalent for loss of time and opportunities in a 
regular occupation or profession. 

Among the interests of leisure are recreative sports and 
games, music, literature, drama, and the fine arts. Here 
we have on the one hand creative pleasure and artistic sat- 
isfaction as the controlling motive; on the other, the pleas- 
ures of appreciation. To give further emphasis to the im- 
portance of leisure, it is only necessary to add that it 
includes the time occupied in that which for many represents 
the highest type of human enjoyment — religious devotions 
and public worship. This interest of leisure is the special 
province of the church and other religious institutions. 
However, the school can inspire reverence for all religious 
aspirations. 

It is to be especially noted that health is a fundamental 
condition to the exercise of every activity. Physical vigor 
has a direct relation to the service of the state. Keeping 
fit is a social and a patriotic duty. Since no interest can be 
pursued without health, not even the enjoyment of leisure, 
keeping well is the prime economy, the first means to all 
other ends. However, the school was not instituted for the 
purpose of gaining health but rather for its conservation. 
It is not a sanitarium. One does not go there to seek lost 



8 Education and the General Welfare 

health but to seek knowledge. Still school conditions and 
requirements must not interfere with normal growth in 
height and weight. The physical vitality of the child must 
be raised rather than lowered by its experience in school. 

The Formal Aim of School Work. If we ask what 
activity in the child the school ultimately seeks to stimulate, 
the answer to be given is more than a hundred and fifty 
years old in the history of education. It is : " inner self-ac- 
tivity.'* This may be called the formal aim of school work 
in distinction from the content aim. In the one the chief 
goal is economic independence, in the second it is independ- 
ence of thought. These two attainments are of greater 
value to the individual than any amount of formal study 
of patriotism and government without these two. The 
largest part of good citizenship is to be able to make an hon- 
est living and to do one's own thinking. 

School Work Aims at the Individual; not at the mass 
but at the individual in the mass. All planning, organizing, 
thinking, is in the first place individual. The teacher must 
keep track of the individual minds composing a class and 
not expect any of them to be swept along by the mo- 
mentum of the whole. 

Maximum and Minimum Aims. Since all children are 
now required to go to school, it will be found that the same 
maximum aims that have been outlined as the major life 
interests cannot be reached in all the children on account 
of differences in natural endowments, and that there will 
be some who are limited not in one but in all possible di- 
rections of advancement. Hence it must be the aim of the 
school to train each child to the limit of its capacity to 
receive training. In some children this will be reached be- 



The General Welfare g 

fore the end of the elementary period, but in most cases 
the training can, as everybody knows, be continued much 
beyond that period. 

Illiteracy. On account of local indifference to the work 
of the school, public education in the United States has not 
reached in many places even minimum aims. According 
to the Secretary of the United States Department of the 
Interior, there were brought into the United States army in 
the first draft of recruits ( 1917) between 30,000 and 40,000 
illiterates and almost as many near-illiterates. In a letter 
on the situation he said of them : 

They cannot sign their names. 

They cannot read their orders posted daily on bulletin boards in 
camp. 

They cannot read their manual of arms. 

They cannot read their letters or write home. 

They cannot understand the signals or follow the signal corps 
in time of battle. 

In one of the southern camps it was found that illiterate 
draftees of American stock did not know the name of the 
county from which they had come, they did not know what 
is meant by '' county seat," they could not tell their age, 
could not command the distinction between right and left 
for the purposes of drill. The questionnaire was a futile 
method of gaining information from them; they could not 
read it nor could they understand its terms, exemption, de- 
pendents, etc. 

Masses of our unassimilated foreigners who were drafted 
into the army had to learn to pronounce in broken English : 
"Halt! Who goes there?" and "Advance and give the 
countersign." 



lo Education and the General Welfare 

It was decided by Congress in 19 17 that illiterate foreign- 
ers must no longer be admitted into the United States. In 
our earlier history the foreign element came mostly from 
the north and west of Europe, from countries nearly all of 
which have a lower percentage of illiterates among the pop- 
ulation than our own. When the immigrants came from 
eastern, central, and southern Europe there was a large in- 
flux of illiterates. They came in part from Austria with 
13.7, Hungary with 33, Roumania with 60.6, Russia with 
69, and Serbia with 78.9 per cent of illiterates among the 
population. We had been making fair progress in reducing 
illiteracy in our native population both white and colored, 
but among the foreign-born it had considerably increased 
by 19 10. According to the Report of the Census taken that 
year there were 5,516,163 persons classed as illiterate, or 
y.y per cent of our total population of ten years and over. 
It has been estimated that the total number of illiterates 
equals the total population of 372 cities having between 
10,000 and 25,000 inhabitants, and that it is larger than the 
combined population of Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, 
Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. 

In 1900, 8.4 per cent of the total voting population were 
unable to read and write. In 191 o the number had in- 
creased. Although the bulk of the illiterate immigrant pop- 
ulation settles at first in the large cities, the rural districts 
contain nearly twice the proportion of all illiterates com- 
pared with the cities, where amalgamation goes on more 
rapidly because isolation is more difiicult, and where op- 
portunities for learning to read and write in the prevailing 
language are more eagerly seized upon by the aspiring for- 
eigner. 



The General Welfare 



II 



The percentage of illiterates in the several states is given 
in the following Chart, the state with the smallest number 
being placed first and so on : 







CHART I 






ank 


State 


Per cent 
of illit- 
erates 


Rank 


State 


Per cent 
of illit- 
erates 


I. 


Iowa 


1.7 


26. 


New York 


5-5 


2. 


Nebraska 


1.9 


27. 


New Jersey- 


5.6 


3. 


Oregon 


1.9 


28. 


Oklahoma 


5.6 


4- 


Washington 


2.0 


29. 


Pennsylvania 


5.9 


5. 


Idaho 


2.2 


30. 


Connecticut 


6.0 


6. 


Kansas 


2.2 


31- 


Nevada 


(>.7 


7. 


Utah 


2.5 


32. 


Maryland 


7.2 


8. 


South Dakota 


2.9 


33. 


Rhode Island 


7-7 


9. 


Minnesota 


3.0 


34. 


Delaware 


8.1 


10. 


Indiana 


3.1 


35. 


West Virginia 


8.3 


II. 


North Dakota 


3-1 


36. 


Texas 


9.9 


12. 


Michigan 


3-2 


Z7- 


Kentucky 


12.1 


13. 


Ohio 


3.2 


38. 


Arkansas 


12.6 


14. 


Wisconsin 


3.2 


39- 


Tennessee 


13.6 


15. 


Wyoming 


3.Z 


40. 


Florida 


13.8 


16. 


California 


3-7 


41. 


Virginia 


15.2 


17. 


Colorado 


Z-7 


42. 


North Carolina 


18.5 


18. 


Illinois 


Z'7 


43- 


New Mexico 


20.2 


19. 


Vermont 


Z'7 


44. 


Georgia 


20.7 


20. 


Maine 


4.1 


45. 


Arizona 


20.9 


21. 


Missouri 


4-3 


46. 


Mississippi 


22.4 


22. 


New Hampshire 


4-6 


47. 


Alabama 


22.9 


23. 


Montana 


4.8 


48. 


South Carolina 


25.7 


24. 


District of Columbia 4.9 


49. 


Louisiana 


29.0 


25. 


Massachusetts 


5.2 









The Allegiance of the Spirit. In this day and age those 
who are literate in no language are men without a country. 
They stay for a time in a modern state but are not of it. 
With a bodily presence in the twentieth century, their minds 



12 Education and the General Welfare 

date back to 1600 and beyond, and not even to what is best 
in those remote periods. Without the power to read they 
cannot enter into communion with the spirit of the times 
and can have no proper conception of national ideals. 

The allegiance of the spirit holds usually with the coun- 
try whose language one speaks and whose literature he 
reads. This is ultimately a stronger tie than blood or trade 
relationship. It is the true cohesive force of national unity. 
In any country with a large immigrant population like ours, 
the use of the language of the adopted country will be a 
permanent minimum aim of educational endeavor. The im- 
migration law of 19 1 7 permits entrance to those who are 
literate in any language. It excludes only '' all aliens over 
sixteen years of age, physically capable of reading, who can- 
not read the English, or some other language or dialect, in- 
cluding Hebrew or Yiddish." In 1910, 22.8 per cent of 
our entire foreign population could not speak the English 
language. When this population is massed in large col- 
onies as in the northern and eastern section of the country 
the number of those who cannot speak English rises as high 
as 76 per cent. 

The foreign white population 10 years of age and over 
who are unable to speak English, grouped on the basis of 
age, is as follows: 

Age Number 

10 to 14 56,405 

15 to 19 227,649 

20 103,345 

21 to 24 394.166 

25 to 34 902,949 

35 to 44 538,798 



The General Welfare 13 

Age Number 

45 to 54 324,865 

55 to 64 192,488 

65 and over 201,709 

Age unknown 10,637 



Total 2,953,011 

According to these figures there were 2,565,612 over 
twenty-one years of age. Of these only 1.3 per cent were 
in school. But since 19 10 there has been a large increase 
in the number of non-English speaking foreigners. About 
the year 19 14 there had come such a large influx of foreign 
workmen into many of our large cities that they could not 
be assimilated with our industrial, social, and political life 
in the ordinary way. They could not read the danger signs 
in the establishments in vv^hich they were to work and they 
could not find their way about without help. The problem 
presented itself as not one of social service but civic neces- 
sity. 

Measures to Reduce or Wipe Out Illiteracy. Since 
the illiterate immigrant over sixteen years of age is no 
longer admitted and since recent amendments to the nat- 
uralization laws provide that " no alien shall hereafter be 
naturalized or admitted as a citizen of the United States 
who cannot speak the English language " ^ and write his 
name, limits have been drawn around the problem of na- 
tionalization so that now a hopeful beginning can be made 
to stamp out or at least greatly reduce illiteracy in the 
English language. 

For more than thirty years Massachusetts has had a law 

1 " Naturalization Laws and Regulations," February 1917, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 



14 Education and the General Welfare 

in force requiring illiterate minors over 14 to go to night 
school if living in a city maintaining such a school. In 
1898 instruction in the English language was added to the 
curriculum of these schools. In 191 3 the requirement for 
passing v^as that of the fifth grade of the ordinary day 
school. In 1916 there were 21 such night schools in Boston 
alone and out of 9500 enrolled 8000 were of foreign birth. 

A number of the states extend the compulsory attendance 
limit for the special benefit of illiterate youth. In Massa- 
chusetts alone ^ the upper limit is 21, five years higher than 
that of any other state. When, as in this state, attendance at 
evening schools only is required, leaving the day free for 
remunerative employment, there is no apparent reason why 
the age limit for attendance at these schools should not be 
much higher than even the requirement in Massachusetts. 

In the state of Kentucky a movement was begun several 
years ago by a county superintendent of schools to wipe out 
illiteracy. The endeavor was first limited to one county 
where the interest of the teachers of the regular day schools 
was enlisted to such an extent that they opened " moonlight 
schools " for adult illiterates which they conducted in the 
evening. Those who took advantage of the opportunity to 
learn to read and write ranged in age from 18 to 87. The 
curriculum embraced, besides reading and writing, arith- 
metic, history, geography, agriculture, civics, home eco- 
nomics, and road building. The subject-matter of the read- 
ing lessons was such as had something to do with the civic 
and home interests of the learners — roads, silos, seed-test- 
ing, crop rotation, ways of cooking, etc. The interest of 

1 A New York law of 1918 requires compulsory continuation school- 
ing for illiterates between the ages of 16 and 21. 



The General Welfare 15 

the people of the state was aroused to such an extent by the 
success of the experiment in a single county that an Il- 
literacy Commission was authorized by the state legislature 
to make the movement state-wide and drive illiteracy from 
Kentucky by 1920. Five other states have followed the 
lead of this state in establishing evening schools for such 
purposes in rural districts.^ 

In the cities, especially in the larger industrial centers 
with a large immigrant population, there are schools for 
those who wish to prepare for naturalization. They are 
held in the evening in the school buildings and courses are 
given in the use of the English language and in the duties 
of citizenship. In 191 7 there were 500 cities in which 
such courses were given. In some of the cities large em- 
ployers of labor cooperated with the school administration 
by making naturalization a condition of promotion and ad- 
vancement in wages. In many cities school buildings are 
open both summer and winter evenings for the instruction 
of foreigners in the language and ways of American life as 
a preparation for naturalization. Courses are completed 
at stated intervals and the graduates appearing before the 
court and without further examination, are invested with 
the honors of American citizenship. 

The controlling idea of the later phase of the movement 
is that foreigners shall be nationalized before they are for- 
mally naturalized. Thus the scope of the work has en- 
larged so that it is now generally known as the American- 
ization movement. Its object is not alone to teach the 
alien to speak and write English, vote intelligently, and un- 
derstand something of the fundamental laws of the land, 
1 Stewart: "Moonlight Schools," the Survey, Vol. 35, P- 429-431- 



1 6 Education and the General Welfare 

but also to make him feel at home and happy here. This 
last seems to be the final test of nationalization. 

To further these purposes a social center has been estab- 
lished in a few cities known as '' The American House " 
where the foreign-born may '' assemble voluntarily in nat- 
ural and self-selected groups for the purposes of instruc- 
tion, recreation, and amusement." ^ 

For the Sake of the Children. While it is true that il- 
literacy makes for economic and mental dependence, for iso- 
lation from a large part of a normal social life and from 
the great world of opinion which is more and more ex- 
pressed in printed form, and for ignorance with its train of 
superstitions, it should be banished from adult life in Amer- 
ica chiefly for the sake of the children. One may readily 
imagine the barrenness of life in an illiterate home and the 
handicap to the immigrant child with no means at home to 
aid in forming thought in the prevailing language of the 
community and the adopted country. Returns from an in- 
vestigation lately made of the school population of one of 
our largest industrial centers show that approximately one- 
half the children in the elementary schools and one-third in 
the high schools are from homes in which one or another 
of twenty-nine different foreign languages is spoken. It 
was found too that " the children of foreign parentage do 
not advance so rapidly through the grades as those of na- 
tive parentage and they drop out much faster in the upper 
grades." ^ 

1 " School Life," Vol, I, November i, 1918, p. 10, and Senger : " The 
American House," the Survey, Vol. XLI, No. 22, March i, 1919, p. 
788-790. 

2 Miller : " The School and the Immigrant" The Survey Commit- 
tee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916. 



The General Welfare 17 

Americanization of Immigrant Children. Children of 
approximately 60 different nationalities are to be found in 
our school population. The United States Bureau of Im- 
migration keeps track of every immigrant child wherever it 
goes from the port of entry until it is enrolled in some ele- 
mentary school. From that time on its educational des- 
tiny is in the hands of the local school administration. We 
must look to the elementary school provided by local au- 
thorities with the necessary material equipment and cap- 
able teachers; the elementary school with its work in Eng- 
lish, its standards of health and hygiene, and its ideals of 
social order, for the larger results of Americanization. 
Here the work of benevolent assimilation will be the most 
thoroughgoing and effective in that it will reach the pres- 
ent child and the future citizen, and not only the child but 
also the foreign home from which it comes. 

The Future of American School Children. We must 
look to the elementary school. It is the common academic 
beginning for all the diverse trades and professions. 

CHART II 

Number Approximate 

Field of Activity Engaged Number of 

Millions Occupations 

Agriculture I2>^ 30 

Manufacturing and Mechanical 

Industry io>^ 186 

Trade and Transportation 6 84 

Domestic and Personal Service. . . 3>4 29 

Professional Service i^ 3^ 

Clerical Occupations i>^ 12 

Extraction of Minerals i (nearly) 14 

Public Service >4 16 



1 8 Education and the General Welfare 

Twenty 1111111011 children come daily to this school to be pre- 
pared to take their places among 37 or 38 million workers 
in gainful pursuits. Chart II gives the distribution and 
the approximate number of specified occupations. 

It will be observed that in order to serve the greatest 
number of future workers our educational institutions must 
not be partial to public service and the professions as these 
in some instances already oversupplied constitute only two 
out of 37 million of gainful occupations. As will be seen, 
the largest number of workers are in the field of agriculture, 
manufacturing and mechanical industry, and trade and 
transportation. 

There is to be noted too a marked difference, between 
agriculture and the other two fields of work just mentioned. 
With its I2j4 million workers there are only 30 specified 
occupations, including a relatively small number of indus- 
tries not directly related to the work of the actual farmer. 
It appears, therefore, that agriculture gives us by far the 
largest body of workers and that it is by far the le*ast dif- 
ferentiated as to specified occupations. Hence the future 
vocational needs of the children in the rural districts can be 
fairly well anticipated by those who make out courses of 
study and consider the question of minimum essentials in 
any of the preparatory courses. 

But in the two largest industrial fields besides agriculture, 
there is a wide differentiation of occupations and it becomes 
relatively difficult to anticipate in school the specific needs 
of the future workers. For those pupils who look forward 
to entering a skilled trade, there may be offered a general 
industrial training course after the sixth grade of the ele- 
mentary school has been successfully completed, this to be 



The General Welfare 19 

followed by courses in technical high schools and colleges. 
For the semi-skilled or the unskilled the school cannot pre- 
pare at all in any specific way. Besides, it is not worth 
while, for this kind of industry can be learned in a few 
days in the shop or factory where it takes place. This is 
the kind of work children go into who leave school prema- 
turely. It is of such meager intellectual content that almost 
any one can do it who can patiently submit to the monotony 
of its routine day after day. There are probably seven or 
eight million places in our industries which children are 
induced to accept, which afford no opportunity for growth 
and for which the schools can make no specific preparation. 

Educational " Faddism.'' What can and should the 
schools do? Since eighteen to twenty million children are 
enrolled in the elementary school and only one to two mil- 
lion in the secondary school, the question is particularly ur- 
gent in so far as it pertains to the great majority of the chil- 
dren whose opportunities for formal education are limited. 
It would require too much space to enumerate all the pro- 
posals of what is deemed most vital to the future welfare of 
the children that have been offered now and again by even 
thoughtful reformers. To introduce them all into the 
school curriculum would lead both to chaos and over- 
pressure. 

The solution of the problem lies in a subject matter so or- 
ganized that what is most important will be kept uppermost 
and the other activities will be duly subordinated, using them 
as means to promote the central purposes of education. 
Any activity that is made an end in itself, when it is properly 
only a means to a higher end, is an educational fad. When 
any activity of the school is unduly emphasized through the 



20 Education and the General Welfare 

attitude of the teacher, the principal, or the superintendent, 
it becomes a fad. On the other hand, no school activity is a 
fad in and of itself. It depends on how it is used. 

The old-time fundamentals still hold their place of first 
importance in the elementary school. They are still essen- 
tial to practical usefulness and economic independence. 
They are needed in all the major life interests. The mini- 
mum attainment for all normal children is ability to think 
in, write in, and speak the English language. This is both 
an end and a means of further education in and out of 
school. To accomplish this in a satisfactory way requires 
for the least capable children not less than six full school 
years. Some of the states have established a minimum by 
means of a law requiring a literacy test and an examination 
in the fundamentals of arithmetic before an employment 
certificate is issued. It often happens that this is not at- 
tained in a six years' course. And yet in many states the 
law allows children employment certificates before they 
reach the sixth grade. Unless the child in question is hope- 
lessly retarded, a satisfactory passing of the sixth grade 
standard in English and ciphering should be the minimum 
requirement in all the states. 

Use of Concrete Things as a Source of Knowledge and 
Skill is not a school fad. Drawing, paper-cutting, and all 
sorts of constructive work in connection with the practical 
arts are sometimes condemned as such by those who have 
hopelessly practical views with respect to the old-time 
fundamentals. Book work alone does not suflfice even for 
book work. Everybody knows that what one gets out of a 
book depends on what he puts in it. Reports of observa- 
tion of concrete things and experiments with them satisfy 



The General Welfare 21 

the motive of discovery and of telling about the results. 
Constructive work in all the grades will provide proper 
motives for the application of units of number and measure. 
Even though the interesting purpose of the work should be 
the making of desirable toys, it will not for that reason be 
less effective as a means of applying knowledge or promot- 
ing skill with tools. The power to read can be utilized in 
following directions. In the upper grades interest will 
grow in the construction of practical things and will be 
applied to the industries of the household.^ 

However, the constructive work of the first six grades at 
least will function as recreation and as a means of disci- 
pline in the use of academic knowledge, not for the attain- 
ment of special skill in any line of work. According to 
the Federal Vocational Education Law fourteen is the mini- 
mum age set for the beginning of vocational training. It 
is the special function of the teachers of the elementary 
school to get the children through the six grades without 
retardation at the age of 12 to 14, and with the full aca- 
demic equipment afforded by those grades. This is the 
part of the elementary school in the vocational training 
program.^ 

Ideals of Recreation. Another of the major life inter- 
ests for the elementary school should be mentioned here 
because it is also sometimes regarded as unpractical. For 
the future welfare of all the pupils and especially for the 

1 Eliot : " Certain Defects in American Education and the Remedies 
for Them." U. S. Bureau of Education, Teachers Leaflet No. 5, 1918, 
p. 8. 

2 Lutz : " Wage Earning and Education," The Survey Committee of 
the Cleveland Foundation, Ohio, 1916. 



22 Education and the General Welfare 

large number of children whose school experience will end 
here, it is necessary to foster ideals of recreation to be 
found chiefly in literature, music, and art. The life pro- 
gram of every man and woman and every child in school 
must have a place for leisure. It is a part of the work, or 
rather play, of a school to develop the power to use leisure 
wisely and for recreation of what is best in man. 

Ideals of Achievement. Along with all else that is 
done, our public schools must cultivate an interest in the 
community, the state, the nation, and the humanity of all the 
world, and all along the line arouse a worthy ambition to 
achieve great things for the common good. Some will be 
workers in field or factory, others will go into the profes- 
sions, still others will pursue science or art largely for its 
own sake. All are important in the greatness of the whole. 
The elementary school is the common beginning for all. 

" Internal Improvement.'* An act of Congress of the 
year 1841 provided that the funds derived from the sale of 
certain public lands be distributed among the several states 
for internal improvement. A part of this fund was ap- 
plied in some of the states to the schools. This is an " in- 
ternal " improvement that should take precedence over all 
others. Every part of our country has an interest in the 
educational uplift of every other part. No part of the 
country however remote can be abandoned to the misfor- 
tunes of ignorance and poverty without in some way af- 
fecting adversely every other part. 

In promoting in each child the power to make an honest 
living, to be socially helpful and patriotically serviceable, 
to think justly, and enjoy leisure wisely, we promote the 
general welfare. The public school is a civic enterprise for 



The General Welfare 23 

social and material betterment. This is the aim of educa- 
tion in a democracy. In order to know the present state 
and the promise of a nation, one must look at the condition 
of the schools as one would look at the face of the clock 
to tell the time. The statesmanship of the world now 
thinks in terms of generations and centuries. To refuse to 
provide for the cost of a proper education of American 
children is to exploit the future for the present and open 
the way to national bankruptcy. In these times, some of 
the nations of the world serve as a warning of the conse- 
quences of ignorance and of a perverted educational policy. 
Ours should present an example of what education should 
be in a democracy. 

The Means of Education. In the following chapters 
will be discussed the essential means and problems of edu- 
cation. These are : a public sentiment for schools as ex- 
pressed by a material provision for them ; a proper distribu- 
tion of emphasis; the physical presence of the children; 
how to keep them in school until the aims of education are 
satisfied ; how to house them ; how to keep them well ; what 
to do for the dullards; how to develop character through 
manasfement ; how to make the mind efficient ; how to de- 
velop the individual through the group ; how to organize the 
school program ; how to vitalize school work ; how to in- 
crease resistance to physical, mental, and moral ills; the 
home and the community as means of education and as 
avenues of expression for children at school. They include 
nothing that could be omitted without detriment to the 
school, nothing that parents, legislators, . teachers, or any 
others who have the good of the children at heart can 
ignore. 



CHAPTER II 
Public Opinion and Educational Control 

Without a favorable local sentiment back of it no edu- 
cational program of any kind will be effective under any 
scheme of government. Under a democratic regime public 
opinion shapes the ends and controls the means of educa- 
tion. In order to profit by educational opportunities, a 
people must want them. The unwilling cannot be taught. 

There was a time when a well-distributed educational 
sentiment existed in this country. It was in the early days 
when the rural population was relatively large, and rural 
and village schools were as good as any. Now the strong- 
est sentiment for schools seems to be concentrated in the 
larger cities. The sentiment is not always intelligent. 
Sometimes it expresses itself in a vague belief in the mere 
power of educational machinery that amounts almost to 
superstition. It may lead sometimes to an unquestioning 
acceptance of every administrative offering, an uncritical 
assent to every proposal, and an optimistic indifference to 
what really takes place in the schools. 

But the present danger lies wholly in the opposite direc- 
tion; in the half-hearted tolerance and stolid indifference to 
educational means of social uplift to be found in thousands 
of localities. Inexperienced and poorly paid teachers, in- 
attendance, dilapidated buildings, unsanitary and demoral- 

24 



Public Opinion and Educational Control 25 

izing surroundings, and poor equipment bear witness in 
many states to a total lack of community pride in school 
affairs. It is for this reason that control has passed and 
is passing everywhere from the local districts to the state. 
The method of state control is to provide a portion of the 
school fund and, under penalty of withdrawing this sup- 
port, require local boards to adopt certain standards and 
conditions definitely prescribed in state law. 

But state control is proving insufficient in many places. 
There are in some of the states with central control, com- 
munities of old American stock who are so ignorant and so 
backward in the ways of life that no person with legal 
qualifications as a teacher, a doctor, or a nurse would con- 
sent to live among them. As a consequence they are aban- 
doned to ignorance and lawlessness and intermittent rav- 
ages of epidemic disease. Ignorance and the mischief it 
breeds are so fraught with danger to organized society 
that no nation or state can afford the neglect of education 
in any part of its domain. 

A Healthy Local Sentiment for Education. A healthy 
local sentiment would be indicated if a district had adequate 
ideals of education which it would be willing to carry into 
effect at any cost out of its own tax fund without any other 
aid whatever. This is the case to a large extent now in 
the large centers of population, where the revenue derived 
from sources outside the .district is so small in proportion 
to the total expenditure that educational interests would 
probably not be allowed to suffer if that revenue were cut 
off. 

A National Sentiment. A strong national sentiment 
for public education is a part of American history. The 



26 Education and the General Welfare 

leaders of public opinion have voiced their endorsement of 
it as a means to promote good citizenship, public health, and 
general prosperity. Before the period of the American 
Revolution education was supported in some of the colonies 
as an aid to the preservation of religious doctrine. When 
in the following period political problems became prominent, 
it was regarded as the very means of preserving the liberties 
of the people. It now became a matter of public policy. 
The fathers of the republic believed that the enemies of a 
free government and the union of the states could be 
guarded against only by a wide diffusion of knowledge. 
This was to be the means of checking mob lawlessness and 
sectional jealousies; of dangerous centralization of power 
and the abuses of authority. Washington believed that as 
ours was a government by public opinion, public opinion 
should be enlightened. Jefferson believed that every local 
school district should become the educational center of the 
community and the ultimate unit of the national democracy. 
Without intelligent citizens who do their own thinking a 
free republic could not long endure. And they must look 
to the education of the children who are in their turn to 
become the sovereign people. 

The whole matter of education was so important that it 
was not deemed wise to leave it to the chance of local com- 
munity control. As early as in the Massachusetts Consti- 
tution of 1780 (Chapter V, sec. 2), education is given a 
wide scope and as clear a definition as one may wish : 

" Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally 
among the body of the people, being necessary for the preserva- 
tion of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spread- 
ing the opportunities and advantages of education in the various 



Public Opinion and Educational Control 2y 

parts of the country, and among the different orders of people, 
it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future 
periods of the Commonwealth, to cherish the interests of litera- 
tures and the sciences, and all seminaries of them; especially the 
University at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in 
the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, 
by rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, 
sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history 
of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of 
humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, in- 
dustry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings; 
sincerity and good humor, and all social affections and generous 
sentiments among the people." 

Federal Aid to Schools. Although the federal consti- 
tution does not in any way mention education, leaving the 
matter entirely to the states or the people themselves, the 
laws of Congress were not silent in the matter. In an 
ordinance adopted by the Congress of the Confederation in 
1785 for the government of the territory northwest of the 
Ohio River, it was ordained that " the plots of the townships 
be marked into lots of one mile square, or 640 acres, and 
numbered i to 36; always beginning the succeeding range 
of lots with the number next to that with which the preced- 
ing one concluded " ; and that " there shall be reserved lot 
number 16 of every township, for the maintenance of pub- 
lic schools, within said township." This method of mak- 
ing provision for the support of public schools is given here 
because it is typical of national legislation since 1803, when 
Ohio the first state carved out of the Territory was admitted 
to the Union. Other lots were reserved for future disposi- 
tion of Congress. The Ordinance of 1787 confirms and ex- 
tends the principle involved in the former ordinance and 



28 Education and the General Welfare 

adds, in Article 3 : '' Religion, morality, and knowledge, 
being necessary to good government and the happiness of 
mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever 
be encouraged." 

In Ohio lands were reserved for both schools and 
churches, the law forbidding only sectarian control of all or 
any part of the fund. In all the other states the use of the 
proceeds of state funds of any kind for the support of 
churches is prohibited. The school lands in Ohio amounted 
in all to one thirty-sixth of all the land of the state. In 
19 1 6 the total proceeds from this source were only $248,- 
000. The churches received sections number 29 of two 
grants only. In 19 16 the proceeds from this fund were 
only a little over $9,000, which was distributed among the 
churches of eleven counties of the state. 

In Ohio, too, the precedent was established to make grants 
of land for higher education. For this purpose 69,120 
acres were reserved, two townships in Athens county, which 
became the foundation of what is now Ohio University, 
and one township in Butler county for the present Miami 
University. 

While the total amount of the proceeds from these grants 
is small and in itself wholly inadequate for the support of 
the schools, when the grants were made it was believed that 
the lands then cheap would in time become valuable. Ohio 
serves as an example of what was done in the case of all 
the states that were thereafter to be admitted to the Union. 
By the time of the admission of Arizona and New Mexico 
in 191 1, the last of the territories to enter the Union, the 
total amount of the grants for the common schools was over 
eighty million acres. There were six other federal grants 



Public Opinion and Educational Control 29 

to some or all of the states, derived from the proceeds of 
the sale of public lands and from other sources, a part or 
all of which, as the case might be, were added in certain of 
the states to their permanent resources for school support.^ 
The state of Ohio has received altogether 704,488 acres 
of land for common school purposes. All but a few thou- 
sand acres had been sold in 1916, with total receipts of 
$4,145,367. In some of the states large permanent school 
funds are accumulating along with the rising price of un- 
sold lands. Minnesota school lands are rich in mineral 
deposits, far exceeding values in other states. The follow- 
ing are the totals of permanent funds, including the esti- 
mated value of the unsold lands in several of the states : ^ 

Illinois (round numbers) $ 34,000,000 

Minnesota 204,030,000 

South Dakota 33,000,000 

Nebraska 29,000,000 

Oklahoma 25,000,000 

Wyoming 34,000,000 

Colorado 49,000,000 

New Mexico 41,000,000 

Idaho 27,000,000 

Washington 72,000,000 

Land Grants in Support of Higher Education. With 
the passage of the Morrill Law, 1862, began a new era in 
government support of higher education. Before this in 
all the legislation enacted there was no mention made of a 
specific subject matter of study, only faith in the general 

1 Cubberley and Elliott : " State and County School Administra- 
tion." Vol. II, Source Book. The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1915, p. 18-108. 

2 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1917, Vol. II, p. 83. 



30 Education and the General Welfare 

results of the work of the schools was indicated. With 
the passage of this law there was authorized a grant of 
over eleven million acres of public land to the several states 
of the Union in amounts ranging from 90,000 to 990,000 
acres, from 'the proceeds of which Colleges of Agriculture 
and Mechanic Arts were to be founded. This has produced 
a total permanent endowment of only $14,719,498 for all 
the states, lands to the value of $7,778,793 remaining un- 
sold in 1916. In some of the older states the allotted lands 
were sold for less than a dollar an acre, Rhode Island's 
strip of 120,000 acres, for instance, netting only $50,000. 
The lands in the newer states were sold later when values 
were higher. The largest portion has fallen to the lot of 
North Dakota with an endowment from this source of over 
a milhon and a quarter and a value of half a million more in 
lands unsold.^ 

Direct Appropriations from the United States Treas- 
ury. As the amounts in the permanent endowments of 
these colleges proved inadequate, additional support was 
granted in acts supplementary to- the Morrill Law by means 
of annual appropriations from the federal treasury. Two 
of the acts aid these colleges directly and two supply the 
funds for the maintenance; of an agricultural experiment 
station in each state. 

For many years after the Colleges of Agriculture and 
Mechanic Arts were established the results, as measured by 
the development of agriculture throughout the country, 
were unsatisfactory. The general public sentiment was 

1 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1917, Vol. II, p. 371; 
Bulletin, 1918, No. 13, U. S. Bureau of Education. 



Public Opinion and Educational Control 31 

not favorable to colleges for the scientific study of agri- 
culture. It supported rather the traditional colleges of arts 
and sciences. Free tuition under federal support and the 
duplication of the courses maintained by the old time col- 
leges however attracted numbers of students, but it was 
found that a relatively small number of the graduates of 
the new institutions engaged in agricultural pursuits. 

Recent years have brought a great change in public senti- 
ment toward agricultural and technical colleges. Their 
administrative policy is more in harmony with the specific 
purpose for which they were created, and they have become 
pet objects of legislative support in the states themselves. 
But as a consequence of the long years of misdirected effort 
due to loosely drawn laws of federal aid to industrial edu- 
cation, when in 19 14 the Agricultural Extension Act was 
passed, the purpose of the appropriations was specifically 
stated to be for cooperative work between the agricultural 
colleges of the states and the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture, this work to '' consist of the giving of instruction and 
practical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics 
to persons not attending or resident in said colleges in the 
several communities, and imparting to such persons in- 
formation on said subjects through field demonstrations, 
publications, and otherwise." Another feature of the law 
is the provision for annual increases in the fund appropri- 
ated, for seven years after its going into effect until, in 
1 92 1, the total appropriation will be $4,580,000 annually. 
The allotment to each state is determined by the proportion 
the rural population of the state bears to the total rural 
population of the United States. 



^2 Education and the General Welfare 

A more recent enactment (19 17) is equally specific in 
regard to the object of the legislation. This is the Voca- 
tional Education Law. It '' provides for cooperation (a) 
of the federal government with the states in the promotion 
of vocational education in agriculture and the trades and 
industries and for cooperation (b) with the states in the 
preparation of teachers of vocational subjects." 

The law authorizes the appropriation of moneys from 
the Treasury of the United States for vocational education 
(a^) in agriculture to aid in paying the salaries of teachers, 
supervisors, etc., of this subject and (a^) in home eco- 
nomics and industrial subjects. For (a^) the sums shall 
be allotted to the states in the proportion which their rural 
population bears to the rural population of the United 
States and for (a^) in the proportion which the urban popu- 
lation bears to the total urban population of the United 
States. For the purpose of preparing teachers of the sub- 
jects under (a) the appropriations are as given under (b) 
in Chart III. These sums are to be allotted to the states 



CHART III 



Year 
1917-18 
1918-19 
1919-20 
1920-21 
1921-22 
1922-23 
1923-24 
1924-25 
1925-26 



a"- 
500,000 
750,000 
1,000,000 
1,250,000 
1,500,000 
1,750,000 
2,000,000 
2,500,000 
3,000,000 



500,000 
750,000 
1,000,000 
1,250,000 
1,500,000 
1,750,000 
2,000,000 
2,500,000 
3,000,000 



500,000 

700,000 

900,000 

1,000,000 

annually 



maximum continued annually 



Public Opinion and Educational Control 33 

in the proportion which the population in each bears to the 
total population of the United States.^ 

Among the conditions attaching to the appropriations are 
the following: for each dollar of federal money expended 
for such salaries the state or local community or both shall 
expend a sum in equal amount; the money can be applied 
only to schools under public supervision and control ; to the 
purpose of a training only that shall fit for useful employ- 
ment; the schools shall be less than college grade and meet 
the needs of persons of over fourteen years of age; the 
agricultural schools shall provide for directed or supervised 
practice for at least six months per year; the other voca- 
tional schools giving instruuction to persons who have not 
entered upon employment shall require that at least half 
of the time of such instruction shall be given to practical 
work on a useful or productive basis, such instruction to 
be for nine months of the year and not less than thirty 
hours a week. 

At least one third of the sum appropriated for salaries of 
teachers in the trade, home economics, and industrial 
schools, shall, if expended, be applied to part-time schools 
or classes for workers over 14 years of age and under 18 
years, who have entered upon employment; and the sub- 
jects taught in such a school may mean any subject given 
to enlarge civic and vocational intelligence. These schools 
shall provide not less than 144 hours of classroom instruc- 
tion per year. 

Evening industrial schools shall fix the age of sixteen as 

1 Bulletin No. ^5, 1917. "What is the Smith-Hughes Bill?" 
National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, New 
York. 



34 Education and the General Welfare 

a minimum for entrance. Instruction shall be supplemental 
to daily employment. 

Not more than 60 per cent nor less than 20 per cent 
appropriated for the training of teachers of vocational sub- 
jects shall be for any one of the following purposes: 

a. For the preparation of teachers, supervisors, or directors of 
agricultural subjects, or 

b. For the preparation of teachers of trade and industrial sub- 
jects, or 

c. For the preparation of teachers of home economics subjects. 

Details such as the minimum requirements for equipment 
and maintenance and for the qualification of teachers are 
determined by the authority of the state board of voca- 
tional education with the approval of the federal board. 
Courses of study and methods of instruction are subject to 
the approval of the state board. 

The different kinds of schools or classes provided for in 
the plans of the Federal Board are: (a) Full Time and (b) 
Part Time schools or classes. Under the first come those 
with 50 per cent of the time devoted to practical work, 30- 

35 per cent to related subjects, and 15-20 per cent to Eng- 
lish, civics, hygiene, and history ; and Cooperative schools or 
classes, with students alternating at stated intervals between 
school and shop, with vocational teachers in full charge of 
the students all the time they are working in the shops. Un- 
der the second head come Trade Extension schools or classes 
aiming to supplement daily work and extend knowledge of 
trade entered upon; Evening schools or classes with the 
same purpose as the preceding; Trade Preparatory schools 
or classes aiming to prepare for an industrial pursuit other 
than the one engaged in; and Continuation schools or 



Public Opinion and Educational Control 35 

classes aiming to extend and supplement general education 
and enlarge civic and vocational intelligence. 

In the brief history of public support of educational 
work here given, it is clear that the drift of opinion at first 
vague and general has now set strongly toward definite 
goals of school work in fields long neglected or believed to 
be beside the aim or beyond the reach of the school. In the 
first enactment, of 1787, provision was made for education 
" as necessary to good government and the happiness of 
mankind." This holds true to-day as much as ever before. 
But nearly a hundred years passed before the first steps 
were taken to provide for specific training in an industry 
which engaged the attention of the great majority of the 
people. It required a quarter of a century more before 
actual results, such as one can suppose the Morrill Law 
aimed at, began to appear in improved farms and more 
abundant crops. With the Agricultural Extension Law of 
1 914 begins the period of definite aims and more strict con- 
ditions imposed to secure more immediate practical results. 
In the last enactment, the work to be supported by federal 
aim is defined as to subject-matter, the minimum age to 
begin it, the amount of practice that shall be combined with 
theory, with various other conditions and safeguards. 
Public opinion as reflected in the laws of Congress at first 
emphasized education as of general disciplinary and politi- 
cal value. Now, apparently with assurance born of satis- 
factory experience, it seeks to apply educational methods to 
the fields of industry. 

Federal Aid for Education as Proposed in a new bill as yet in 
tentative form provides for a Secretary of Education as the head 
of an executive department and with a seat in the President's 



36 Education and the General Welfare 

cabinet, the appropriation of money for the conduct of said de- 
partment, and for federal aid to the states in promotion of educa- 
tion. It was tentatively drawn by a committee of the National 
Educational Association Commission on the National Emergency 
in Education in cooperation with the National Child Labor Com- 
mittee. It provides for an annual appropriation of $100,000,000, 
to be divided among the states as follows : ^ 

One twentieth for the purpose of cooperating with the states in 
instructing illiterates in the common school branches, in citizen- 
ship and for definite vocations. 

One twentieth for Americanizing immigrants through instruc- 
tion in the English language, training in the duties of citizenship, 
and development of respect for law and order and an understand- 
ing of our civic and social institutions. 

Five tenths for equalizing opportunities for education by im- 
proving public elementary and high schools through the lengthen- 
ing of the school term where it is now too brief, through stand- 
ardizing, grading and supervising, through developing rural 
schools and providing thorough instruction. 

Three tenths for the promotion of physical education and 
recreation, medical examination of children of school age, em- 
ployment of school nurses and instruction of the people in the 
principles of health and sanitation. 

One tenth for training teachers, particularly for the rural 
schools. 

Other Sources of Support. Besides the permanent 
fund and direct appropriations from the federal treasury 
now^ available, there are two other sources from which all 
public schools derive support. Each state levies a tax for 
public schools. In the state of Ohio, for instance, a fixed 
rate of .055 of a mill is levied on the taxable property for 
this purpose.^ Besides, there is a local tax levy which in 

i"The Child Labor Bulletin," May, 1918, pp. 55-56. 

2 " School Laws of the State of Ohio," 1915, pp. 150-151. 



Public Opinion and Educational Control 37 

large centers of population brings in by far the largest sum 
for school purposes. To illustrate, the amounts derived 
from the three sources of income in the school district of 
Cincinnati for 19 17 were: ^ 

From permanent fund $ 5,000.00 

State taxes 160,000.00 

Local taxes 2,850,526.84 

That is, the district of Cincinnati received only .175+ per 
cent from the permanent fund and 5.6+ per cent from the 
state fund, 94.225 per cent being derived from local sources. 
The per cent of the total school income from various 
sources for the whole United States in 191 6 was as follows: 

Per cent 
Permanent fund 2.79 

State taxes i5-03 

Local taxes 77.00 

Other sources 5.18 

In some districts the value of taxable property is so low 
that it is not possible to secure sufficient revenue for school 
purposes within the rate limit allowed by law. Under such 
circumstances state aid is especially invoked as a means of 
^* equalizing educational opportunities." 

^ " Eighty-seventh Annual Report Cincinnati Public Schools," 1917, 
p. 19. 



CHAPTER III 
Distribution of Emphasis 

The strength of local school sentiment is usually to be 
measured by the amount the people of a district are willing 
to tax themselves for school purposes. The genuineness 
and intelligence of the sentiment, however, is to be gauged 
by a wise and proper distribution of expenses. That is, 
good schools depend not only on how much the people are 
willing to pay for them but also on what they emphasize 
as of essential importance in the expense account. 

In regard to this, the provisions of the Vocational Educa- 
tion Law are significant. The Congress of the United 
States cooperates with the States in this extensive educa- 
tional program by appropriating money from the Treasury 
to pay the salaries of teachers of vocational subjects and 
the salaries of those who prepare the teachers for this work. 
No part of the fund can be diverted to any other purpose. 
This implies the view that to insure the success of the pro- 
gram the main features of the educational process must 
first of all be supported. It is well known that these essen- 
tials of education have not always been jealously guarded. 
The administration of the public schools has aroused inter- 
est sometimes chiefly because of extensive building programs 
with land to acquire, contracts to let, and labor to employ, 
or because of the equipment needed by way of books, furni- 
ture, and apparatus. Too often it has been forgotten that 

38 



Distribution of Emphasis 39 

these material provisions, while important, cannot have edu- 
cational value without capable teachers. 

Again, it has proved an unwise economy to pay well 
administrative and managerial heads at the disparagement 
of the rank and file of the teachers. The year of the en- 
trance of the United States into the Great War it was esti- 
mated that 50,000 schools of the country were without 
teachers. This occasioned no surprise among those who 
know the salaries of the men and women who teach in the 
elementary schools in country and city districts. The pay 
of rural teachers averages less than $300 per annum. ^ 

"Why is there a shortage of teachers? A stufficient answer 
may be found in the following data regarding salaries of ele- 
mentary teachers, compiled for 930 villages of less than 2,500 pop- 
ulation scattered throughout the country: 

" Of these teachers 64.69 per cent receive less than $600 a year 
and 33.76 per cent lesis than $500 a year. Salaries in the purely 
rural schools are much less, and in the city schools not very much 
greater, though great enough to draw heavily upon the supply of 
rural-school teachers. 

" Many of the best teachers are taking up other work paying 
twice as much. Without competent teachers the American public 
school is doomed to failure; without an efficient public school 
America will fail as teacher of democracy to the peoples of the 
world." 2 

The Total Cost of Education in the United States for the 
Year ipi6 is given below. The figures are taken from the 
latest published report of the Commissioner of Education. 

iFoght: "The American Rural School," The Macmillan Company, 
New York, 1910. See Chapter VI, Salaries and Tenure of Rural 
Teachers, pp. 92-115. 

2 " School Life," Vol. I, no. 8, p. 8. Published by U. S. Bureau of 
Education, Washington, D. C. 



40 Education and the General Welfare 

CHART IV 
Classification Enrollment Per capita cost Total cost 

Public schools 

Elementary 18,895,626 $29.55 $558,391,364 

High 1,456,061 56.54 82,325,689 

All schools including private 

schools, colleges, universities, 

professional schools, evening 

schools, etc., etc 23,209,029 39-37 914,804,171 ^ 

Less than 8 per cent of the number of children who go 
to the elementary school attend the high school, but the 
per capita cost of high school education is nearly twice that 
of the elementary school and much higher than the average 
per capita cost of all schools. The high school is provided 
with finer buildings and more and better paid teachers as a 
rule — is this a wise distribution of the available funds? 

Expenses of Special Schools. In the same report we 
find that the cost of special schools is as follows : 

Enrollment Per capita cost Total cost 

Schools for the deaf i4,733 $300.80 $4,431,686 

Schools for the blind 5,155 498.34 2,568,943 

Schools for the feeble-minded 37,630 555-42 20,900,455 

The high cost of special schools is to be regarded as a heavy 
penalty inflicted upon the state for the carelessness and 
neglect to which a large number of the cases of deafness 
and blindness are due and the unwise economy that does 
not provide schools for the segregation of the feeble- 
minded. 

1 Compare the total estimated expenditure in the United States for 

Tobacco (1912) $1,100,000,000 

Motoring (1915) 1,800,000,000 

Alcoholic beverages (average for '11, '12, '13) 1,630,187,252 



Distribution of Emphasis 41 

Distribution of Expenses in State and City Systems. 

The per cent of expenditure in the United States as a whole 
for the same year was as follows for : 

Sites, buildings, etc 16.15 

Salaries 56.93 

All other purposes 26.92 ^ 

The largest part of the expense of schools is and of 
course ought to be for the salaries of teachers. Unless 
there are too many pupils per teacher, it is one of the signs 
of good administration when this item is relatively large, 
other provisions made, such as housing, equipment, etc., 
being satisfactory. An idea of the meaning of '' all other 
purposes " may be gained by a glance at the expense ac- 
count of a large city. The following items were compiled 
from the financial program of the city of Cincinnati for 
the year 1917: 

Per cent 

Contingencies 0.64 

Compulsory Education 
Attendance department 

Child labor 0.65 

Auxiliary Service 

Lunch rooms, playgrounds, etc 1.44 

Superintendence 

Institutes, Commencement, Teachers' pensions, 

etc 1.71 

General Administration 

School census, Rents, Fire insurance, Insurance 
and Sinking Fund for Bonded Debt, etc ii-77 

^ Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year ending June, 
191 7. Washington, D. C. 



42 Education and the General Welfare 

Business Management 

School plant operation, maintenance, cleaning, 

etc 20.35 

Salaries for Teachers 63.40 ^ 

States Compared. In the following table may be seen 
how any one of the states compares with others and with 
the United States as a whole in the matter of expense per 
pupil and the proportion of the expense devoted to teachers' 
salaries : 

CHART V 2 



1916 

u. s. 

State 
Ala. . 
Ariz. 
Ark. 
Cal. . 
Colo. 
Conn. 
Del. . 
Fla. . 
Ga. . 
Idaho 
111. .. 
Ind. . 
Iowa 



A 

$23.87 



B 

$41.72 



C 

56.93% 



D 

32.7 



Rank 

6.77 45 

42.60 4 

8.28 42 

56.21 2 

33.46 16 

33.94 14 



1489 

6.96 

36.55 

29.07 

3413 
35.60 



35 

44 

9 

24 

63 
II 



15.49 
77.85 
1463 
78.17 
55.90 
53.09 
24.06 
26.44 
13.77 
63.56 
45.16 
51.77 
52.15 



Rank 

42 

3 
43 

2 
12 
14 
Z7 
36 
44 

7 
25 
18 

17 



Rank 

7479 3 

47.12 47 
80.08 I 

55.14 32 

61.78 16 

48.81 44 
71.99 5 

54.65 36 
72.76 4 

55.01 33 

5477 3S 

48.57 45 

57.10 28 



Rank 

46.5 43 

33.1 25 

41.9 36 

31. 1 21 

28.0 14 

36.5 29 

42.6 38 
345 27 



44.3 
27-3 



39 
13 



32.5 24 
28.7 17 
19.3 4 



1 Budget for 1917, Eighty-seventh Annual Report, Cincinnati Public 
Schools for the year ending August 31, 1916. 

2 Compiled from data given in Report of U. S. Com. of Edu., Vol. II, 
1917. A. Expenditure per capita of school population 5-18. B. Ex- 
penditure per capita of average attendance. C. Proportion or per cent 
of the whole expense for teachers' salaries. D. Average number of 
pupils enrolled per teacher with rank in no. of teachers. The figures at 
the top mean the average for the U. S. as a whole. 



Distribution of Emphasis 



43 



I916 

u. s 

State 

Kan 

Ky 

La 

Me 

Md 

Mass 

Mich 

Minn 

Miss. ('13) . . 

Mo 

Mont 

Nebr 

Nev 

N. H 

N. J 

N. Mex 

N. Y 

N. C 

N. Dak. ('15) 

Ohio 

Okla 

Oreg 

Pa 

R. I 

S. C 

S. Dak 

Tenn 

Texas 

Utah 

Vt 

Va 

Wash 

W. Va 

Wis 

Wyo 



A 

$23.87 



Rank 



31.79 20 

11.93 38 
9.62 41 

22.62 29 

14.65 36 

32.94 18 

32.03 19 

33.87 15 

4-53 47 

19.97 31 

65.71 I 
31.37 21 
43.73 3 
21.89 30 
36.92 7 
16.76 32 
29.43 23 

7.1 1 43 

36.43 10 

33-37 17 

13.70 37 

36.61 8 

29.04 25 
25.35 27 

6.96 44 

29.72 22 
9.87 40 

15.19 34 

35.51 12 

27.17 26 

10.97 39 

38.91 5 

16.10 33 

24.30 28 

38.81 6 



B 

$41.72 



Rank 

49-40 23 

23.56 38 

23.36 39 

34.31 30 

30.93 32 

53.75 13 
47.66 24 
57.22 II 

9-30 47 

33.65 31 
86.36 I 

50.06 22 
76.26 4 

39.44 28 

61.89 8 

38.79 29 
52.15 17 

12.31 46 
69.62 5 
52.88 15 
28.47 35 
52.59 16 
50.88 19 

50.32 21 

12.80 45 
61.26 9 

15.76 41 
30.50 33 

50.84 20 
43.91 27 
21.53 40 

68.33 6 

28.85 34 

44.90 26 
57.65 10 



C 

56.93% 



D 

32.7 



54.82 
60.52 
64.64 
58.77 
69.39 
58.46 
52.77 
53.38 
77.45 
62.60 
48.28 
60.53 
66.51 
59.10 
50.23 
59.18 
69.72 
69.08 
50.55 
49.13 
70.60 

59.79 
44.25 
52.89 
68.60 
56.19 
63.33 
61.70 
52.76 

55.51 
61.41 
61.58 
58.41 
56.48 
63.15 



Rank 

34 
21 
12 

25 

8 
26 
39 
37 

2 

15 
46 
20 
II 
24 
42 
23 

7 

9 
41 
43 

6 
22 
48 
38 
10 
30 
13 
17 
40 

31 
19 
18 
27 
29 
14 



26.4 

41.7 
42.0 
21.4 
34.5 
34.5 
29.5 
27.0 

44.9 
35.7 
21.7 
23.2 
20.1 
21.8 
32.3 
39-6 
30.3 
44.6 
18.7 
28.4 
40.5 
23.0 
37.5 
32.4 
49.8 
19.0 
47.2 
37.1 
33-8 
21.8 
37.0 
26.4 

30.4 

28.1 
18.8 



44 Education and the General Welfare 

According to the figures in column A of Chart V, Mon- 
tana, for instance, had an expense of $65.71 per capita of 
school population, which is 9.7 times $6.77, that of Ala- 
bama, and nearly twice as much as that of Colorado, Con- 
necticut, Minnesota, or Ohio. 

According to column B, Montana paid about 5.5 times 
as much per capita of average attendance, which indicates 
that Montana had more of her school population in at- 
tendance than Alabama. 

Number of Pupils per Teacher. It may seem surpris- 
ing to find states low in columns A and B yet showing a 
larger proportion of expense devoted to the payment of sal- 
aries of teachers in column C. Arkansas is 42nd and 43rd 
in A and B respectively but first in C, while Arizona is 4th 
and 3rd in A and B and 47th in C. That a large proportion 
of the expense goes to teachers' salaries is in itself a 
good sign. However, column D will show that Arkansas 
ranks low in the number of teachers compared with the 
number of pupils in the schools; it will be seen that some 
of the states that rank high in C use comparatively few 
teachers. Tennessee has an average of 47.2 pupils per 
teacher. South Carolina 49.8, which is more than two and a 
half times the number of pupils per teacher than in the 
states of Wyoming and Iowa. As the better graded city 
schools usually can have a larger enrollment per teacher, 
states with a large urban population would naturally have 
a higher average than rural states. However, some of the 
states with a high average per teacher are also rural rather 
than urban states. 

The proportion of the whole expense for teachers' salaries 
will be lower in some of the states for good reasons, for it 



Distribution of Emphasis 45 

may be due to better buildings and equipment, to better 
care, to a larger outlay for auxiliaries, such as lunch rooms, 
playgrounds, social center work, medical inspection, etc. 
The principal elements in any school system are the chil- 
dren, the teachers, and the buildings. In the first place of 
consideration are the children for whom all the other ele- 
ments are to be exclusively devoted. It is for their sake 
that teachers must be well paid and that buildings must 
be inviting, comfortable, and sanitary. In this respect 
there is frequently a great difference between the states; 
some of them have a value of buildings and equipment 
exceeding one hundred dollars per child, while certain other 
states have an investment of only eight, six, and as low as 
four dollars per child. 

Financial Return to the Teacher. If we ask how the 
states differ in the financial return to the teacher per pupil 
in average attendance, the answer may be derived from 
columns B and C, Chart V. For example, in Mississippi 
where with the figures for 19 13, the only ones we have, the 
per capita expense per pupil in average attendance is $9.30, 
taking 77.45 per cent of this we have a total return to the 
teacher from each pupil, of $7.20. In Pennsylvania, which 
is 19th for the amount expended per pupil in average at- 
tendance, the return to the teacher is 44.25 per cent of 
$50.88, or $22.50 per pupil in average attendance. Com- 
paring Arkansas and Montana we have 11. 71 and 41.69 as 
returns to the teachers of the amount expended per pupil 
in average attendance in the states respectively. Making 
due allowance for differences in conditions, the teachers of 
Arkansas and Mississippi are not as well paid per pupil as 
the teachers of Pennsylvania and Montana. 



46 Education and the General Welfare 

Distribution of Expense in Cities. In the following 
will appear the distribution of expense averaged for 18 
cities of moderate size : 

CHART VI 

Classified Expenditures Per Child in Average Attendance 

Averaged for 18 Cities of from 250,000 to 750,000 

Inhabitants, 1914^ 

1. Office of board and other business offices $ 1.15 

2. Superintendent's office 75 

3. Salaries and expenses of supervisors 70 

4. Salaries and expenses of principals 3.35 

5. Salaries of teachers 31-65 

6. Stationery, supplies and other instruction expenses 1.56 

7. Wages of janitors and other employees 3.14 

8. Fuel 1. 15 

9. Maintenance — repairs, replacement of equipment, etc. . . .64 

It may be expected that there would naturally be con- 
siderable variation in certain of the items of expense in 
different cities. On account of climate there would be a 
difference in the amount of fuel consumed and its cheapness 
would depend upon nearness to the source of supply. It is 
true, too, that item 9 would vary for different years in the 
same city. Living expenses would also have some effect 
on the outlay for salaries of principals and teachers. 

Total Expense per Pupil. The total expense per pupil 
in average attendance in the 18 cities is $43.09, and that for 
the salaries of teachers is $31.65, which is 71.1 per cent of 
the whole expense. In the following Chart VII, these same 

1 From figures presented in Clark : " Financing the Public Schools," 
Cleveland, Ohio, 1915. The Survey Committee of the Cleveland 
Foundation, p. 42. 



Distribution of Emphasis 



47 



1 8 cities are given and compared in regard to the amount 
paid in salaries of teachers per pupil in average attendance, 
the proportion that this expense bears to the whole, and the 
average number of pupils per teacher in each of the cities. 



CHART VII 

Salaries of Teachers Per Pupil in Average Attendance 
(A), the Proportion of This to the Whole Expense (B), and 
THE Number of Pupils Per Teacher (C), in i8 Cities of from 
250,000 TO 750,000 Inhabitants.^ 





A 

Salaries 


B 
Per cent 


C 

Elementary 








of 


of 


Schools 








Teachers 


Whole 


and 








per pupil 


Expense 


Kindergartens 


High Schools 










Rank 




Rank 


Los Angeles 


$45.44 


72.6 


26.8 


I 


18. 1 


I 


Seattle 


44.96 


74.8 


31.7 


9 


19.8 


10 


Washington 


36.97 


75.6 


28.6 


3 


18.3 


2 


Boston 


36.54 


67.9 


36.4 


15 


26.9 


17 


Minneapolis 


34.55 


68.9 


30.8 


6 


21.6 


13 


San Francisco 


34.09 


75.5 


35.6 


14 


27.1 


18 


Newark 


33.96 


72.0 


34.5 


12 


18.8 


5 • 


Kansas City 


32.47 


68.6 


30.2 


5 


19.1 


6 


Buffalo 


31.95 


66.2 


28.0 


2 


22.5 


14 


Pittsburgh 


31.84 


57.4 


31.0 


8 


18.6 


4 


Detroit 


30.09 


69.1 


33.6 


II 


19.6 


9 


St. Louis 


30.03 


60.5 


38.3 


17 


19.2 


8 


Cleveland 


29.44 


67.3 


37.4 


16 


20.2 


II 


Jersey City 


28.26 


70.0 


38.4 


18 


23.3 


16 


Indianapolis 


27.74 


66.0 


30.9 


7 


22.9 


15 


Milwaukee 


27.38 


74.4 


35.1 


13 


18.6 


3 


New Orleans 


24.64 


75.2 


29.4 


4 


20.2-1- 1 2 


Baltimore 


22.65 


72.8 


33.1 


10 


19. 1 


7 



1 Compiled from figures given in Clark: 
Schools," op. cit, pp. 42-52. 



Financing the Public 



48 Education and the General Welfare 

Crowding in the Elementary School. When the aver- 
age number of pupils per teacher is high as in the elementary 
schools of some of the cities, it is probable that many classes 
are much too large for satisfactory results. The fact that 
children are young and small gives no warrant for crowd- 
ing so many more of them into a room nor for taxing a 
teacher with so many more of them. The younger they 
are, the more they need the care of the teacher. The edu- 
cational psychology of the elementary school child is at 
least as difficult as for the child of high school age. The 
older children can usually be referred to books and printed 
matter; the younger the child the more its work must be 
planned for out-of-hand and subject matter adapted to indi- 
vidual need. Besides, the lower grades represent the age 
of the greatest frequency of the school diseases, when chil- 
dren have not yet outgrown the communistic habits through 
which infection takes place. This would suggest that their 
number should be relatively small in the lower grade classes. 
In the light of modern pedagogy, crowding the children 
in the lower classes rests on several fallacies : that because 
they are small more of them can be taught in the same 
classroom, that because they are young and do not know 
much they are easily taught and more of them can be taught 
at the same time, and that because they are little and weak 
more of them can be made to submit to discipline at the 
same time. 

Method of Distribution of School Funds. School 
funds are usually distributed in proportion to the number of 
youth of legal school age. The state of Ohio distributes 
the school fund on this basis in accordance with the results 
reported by local enumerators. Apart from the danger of 



Distribution of Emphasis 49 

padded census reports of the school population, it is com- 
monly believed that the only correct and just method of 
distribution is on the basis of the number of teachers em- 
ployed and the aggregate number of days of attendance of 
the school children. The state should not pay for the 
schooling of that part of the school populattion which in 
one way or another evades the compulsory attendance laws. 
It should also recognize that an adequate number of teach- 
ers will produce better results than a smaller number teach- 
ing under crowded conditions to save on the item of 
salaries. 



CHAPTER IV 
Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 

To conserve the physical and mental energies of the chil- 
dren for adult life is the most important national economy. 
As this is a nation's method of self-preservation, it super- 
sedes all other interests. The enlightened motto of twen- 
tieth century civilization is Women and children first. A 
nation guarantees its future when it gives the child a 
chance for the fullness of life before and after birth. For 
this reason it has become the policy of the state : — to limit 
the hours of employment for adult women, shield them 
from unnecessary hardships, and make the conditions under 
which they work hygienic and the surroundings agreeable; 
to keep the infant in the mother's care as long as may be 
necessary; and to forbid the employment of child labor. 

The Meaning of Childhood. There was a time when a 
child was regarded as an adult in miniature. According to 
its station in life it was a little aristocrat or a Httle worker. 
That childhood has a characteristic meaning and a natural 
development of its own is a view only about a hundred 
and fifty years old and not yet universally accepted. The 
young of only the lower orders of life are at once equipped 
with the powers of the adult. A young fish, for instance, 
is at birth about as well adapted to the environment as the 

50 



Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 51 

adult. It can eat without help and by swimming away 
escape being eaten, and it is at once suited to the changing 
temperature of the medium in which it lives. In the higher 
order of animals there is a period of infancy, or helpless- 
ness, during which the instincts for survival are supple- 
mented by the parents' instinct of protection. 

In the case of man, life is more complex; there is more to 
learn; there are more adjustments to be made both in num- 
ber and in variety, both to the natural and the social sur- 
roundings of mature life. The human infant requires more 
than a year to learn to do what the young animal can do 
almost at once. In the case of both, the nervous mechanism 
which receives impressions and the motor nerves of re- 
sponse are probably all complete; but in the animal there 
is a close connection between the two systems at birth, so 
close that the responses have a relatively fixed relation to 
the stimuli and the young animal is at once the creature of 
the habits of its ancestry. In the child there are immature 
connecting nerves between the two systems just mentioned. 
These grow at best slowly and gradually through the activity 
of the other two systems upon a relatively wide range of 
experience. By its inherited tendencies the energies of the 
young child are all absorbed in gaining sensory impressions 
and in ceaseless motor activity. 

Neural Basis of Work and Play. From this point of 
view the difference between work and play in the case of 
the undeveloped child is this : as work is exercise in a nar- 
rowly limited field of sensory impressions and motor re- 
sponses and subjected to much repetition, it gives the neural 
basis of the mental life a limited development; as play en- 
gages the child in a great variety of activities, passing 



52 Education and the General Welfare 

rapidly from one to another as its meager powers of mental 
and physical endurance dictate, it makes for a broad and 
general development. The greater energy commanded in 
play than in work also makes for a more complete develop- 
ment of the fibers involved. Play in games requires alert 
adjustment to the unpredictable and unexpected; the routine 
of work is monotonous and dull. The varied and violent 
activity of the limbs in play is needed for the growth and 
proper functioning of the organs of the trunk. It is true 
of children as of adults that if a set of ner^^es is repeatedly 
stimulated the feeling of weariness that results will vanish 
upon the stimulation of another set at the same ttime. Sol- 
diers weary with the march revive on hearing the band play. 
The child when young wearies of one kind of play activity 
in a short time and shifts to others in rapid succession until 
the body as a whole becomes fatigued and sleep brings 
about a new store of energy. 

Labor robs the child of its natural right to play for physi- 
cal and mental growth. It is a national economy to devote 
the period of childhood to school with its variety of social, 
mental, and play interests, and the period of maturity to 
productive work. To do otherwise is to work contrary to 
the natural laws of development and this cannot be done 
without incurring the severe penalty of nature. But this 
usually falls hardest on the innocent. 

Immediate and Remote Effects of Child Labor. 
Under the stress of war, England recruited about 600,000 
agricultural and factory workers from among the school 
children. The results were unsatisfactory and there was a 
quick reaction to the mistaken policy. One of the medical 
investigators employed by the British Health of Munition 



Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 53 

Workers' Committee ^ reported, ''Of the boys it may be said 
for the most part that they are so spiritless, so dull, so dead 
in look, so woe-begone and attacked with weariness to a 
dulling of their spirits as to compel attention." He also 
gave as evidence of fatigue, muscular pains, foot ache, rest- 
lessness, sleepiness, a dry skin, a vacant expression, and a 
skin rash. A social worker reported, '' The boys are draw- 
ing on their strength; they fall asleep in the trains and 
trams, and often travel on beyond their stations." At the 
same time the effects reported were attributed to a large ex- 
tent to the conditions of employment and to conditions out- 
side the workshop. In its summary of conclusions we read : 
" The committee regards it as extremely important that the 
nation, at a time when war is destroying so much of its 
manhood, should guard the rising generation not only 
against immediate break-down, but also against the imposi- 
tion of strains which may stunt future growth and develop- 
ment. Conditions outside the factories contribute to the 
fatigue of juvenile workers, and it has to be remembered 
that boys and girls need sufficient reserve energy not only 
for the maintenance of health, but also for growth. Even 
under normal conditions there is some danger of juvenile 
employment adversely affecting physique, and this danger 
is materially increased by the present conditions of employ- 
ment." 

As a result of its war-time experience the English 
Parliament has voted a largely increased appropriation in 
support of the schools, and the Education Bill which has 
just passed the House of Commons is described as the most 

1 Bulletin U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, whole No. 223, 1917, Juve- 
nile Employment, pp. 98-100. 



54 Education and the General Welfare 

far-reaching measure for child conservation that has yet 
been taken in any of the warring countries. 

It is believed that there are effects of child labor which 
will not at once be apparent. In so far as work leads to 
a specialized development of the nerve fibers, as suggested 
before, certain parts of the association structures remain 
undeveloped. This, it is held by high authority, is likely 
to become the seat of mental disease. It is true that this 
may be mild in its effects ; that is, it may escape the notice of 
the outside world, but in all its mildness, it may be suffi- 
cient to make a man his own worst enemy throughout life. 
It may lead to a sort of chronic fatigue. Child labor re- 
produces itself ; the child who has grown up in it will likely 
become the indolent adult who exacts support from his own 
child. 

As child labor makes for inefficiency in the adult, so it 
lowers his earning capacity. This should tend to hold back 
the manufacturer who promotes child labor. The cheap 
child laborer of to-day makes the poor buyer of to-morrow. 
Thus he who employs child labor adds a part to the con- 
stituency of the impecunious who make business dull. 

Child Labor Laws. All the states in the Union have 
laws on their statute books regulating child labor. Public 
sentiment has been strong enough to bring this to pass, but 
it has not been strong enough locally to bring about a just 
enforcement of these laws. Local influences have tended 
to nullify them; at least a large proportion of the prosecu- 
tions have resulted in acquittals. A remedy has been 
sought in a national law. The chief difficulty in the way 
of national legislation has been constitutional. Primarily 
the function of regulating conditions within its borders be- 



Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 55 

longs to the state. However, in 191 7 a child labor law 
was passed by the Congress of the United States to go into 
effect September of the same year. The constitutionality 
of the law was supposed to rest in the power of Congress to 
regulate commerce between the states. The law as passed 
prohibits interstate commerce in goods upon which children 

(a) under 14 working in mills, factories, canneries, or workshops 

Or 

(b) under 16 working in mines or quarries 

Or 

(c) between 14 and 16 working more than eight hours a day in 

factories, etc. 

Or 

(d) between 14 and 16 working after 7 p. m. or before 6 a. m. 

have been employed or permitted to work within thirty days 
prior to the removal of such goods for shipment. Its en- 
forcement is in the hands of the authorities of the federal 
courts. The employer pays the penalty. The law was de- 
clared unconstitutional in 19 18 by the Supreme Court of 
the United States. 

Although this law cannot now be enforced, it is worth 
while to know the standards which are recognized therein 
because they are being retained in the new bills that have 
been introduced. The Senate of the United States has 
approved by a vote of 50 to 12 an amendment to the 
revenue bill of 19 18 which avoids the constitutional objec- 
tions of the former law by making the taxing power of the 
federal government the weapon against child labor. This, 
it is held, is subject to no limitations except those distinctly 
named in the constitution. The bill as already passed by 
the Senate provides that those who employ child labor shall 



56 Education and the General Welfare 

pay for each taxable year, in addition to all other taxes im- 
posed by law, an excise tax equivalent to 10 per cent of the 
entire net profits received or accrued for such year from the 
sale or disposition of the products of child labor. It fol- 
lows the statutory definitions of child labor as found in the 
former law. 

Children Not Protected. The provisions of the former 
law affected only about 150,000 children. There are more 
than a million and a half working children whose status will 
not be changed by any federal legislation now proposed, 
because they are not employed in occupations the law pro- 
scribes. According to the U. S. Census of Occupations, 
1910, there were employed in agriculture alone 1,430,996 
children between 10 and 15 years of age. Much remains 
for state legislation for children in the following occupa- 
tions : 

Messengers, office and bundle boys 5^,799 

Newsboys and newsgirls 20,450 

Clerks 20,112 

Laundry workers 12,045 

Milliners, dressmakers, apprentices 8,418 

Servants 89,508 

Twenty-eight states do not regulate street trades and twenty 
have poor regulation. Twenty-two states need night mes- 
senger laws. Twenty-seven states permit children under 
16 to work in stores and local establishments more than 
eight hours a day.^ 

Childhood is the never-returning golden age for joy in 
play, in school work and comradeship, for books and stories, 

1 Taylor, Florence I.: "The Child Labor Movement of To-day," 
School and Society, Vol. V, No. 106, pp. 10-14. 




CHART Vila 

Child Labor in 36 American Cities ^ 

Percentage of children from 10 to 15 years of age, inclusive, "gain- 
fully employed" in industry, 1910. 

1 Minneapolis 2.8 

2 Portland, Ore 3-9 

3 St. Paul 4.1 ^< 

4 Washington, D. C 4.4 

5 Omaha 4-5 

6 Salt Lake City 4-6 

7 Seattle 4-9 

8 Los Angeles 5-6 

9 Milwaukee 6.4 

10 Denver 6.6 

11 Buffalo 7-1 

12 Springfield, 111 7-2 

13 San Francisco T-Z 

14 Boston 74 

15 New York City 7-5 

16 Kansas City, Mo 7-8 

17 Chicago 9-1 HI^HIHHBIHIB 

18 Pittsburg 9-3 EH^HHHHI^HBu . 

19 Newark 10.2 HIHHi^lHIIHHHHr 

20 Cleveland 10.5 ^■^^■■■■^■■■H 

21 Louisville 10.6 ^■■■■■^^■■■■■l 

New Orleans 10.6 ^■■■■^■■■■■B 

23 New Haven ii.o ■■■■■■■^■■^■■■il 

24 Indianapolis 11.3 ■■■■^^^■■{^■■■l 

Cincinnati 11.3 ■■■■^■■I^HHHIBB 

26 St. Louis 12.0 {■■■■■■■■■^■■i 

27 Birmingham 13.O HIHI^IHIHHHHm 

28 Providence 13.2 ■■■^■■■■■■BBHHH 

29 Philadelphia 13-3 IHIHHHHHH^HBBHBH 

30 Charleston, S. C 13.4 ■■■■IHHHiHHHHHIiH 

31 Scranton 13.5 ■■^^■■■^^■■■■■i 

32 Memphis 14.I ■^■■^■■■■■■■■■■■H 

ZZ Jacksonville 14.3 ^M^— ^^^— ^^M 

34 Detroit 14.S HHBHB^HHHHHHHHH 

35 Baltimore 16.7 ■^■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■M 

36 Atlanta 17.8 — M^MIiiilWiWIM— lO^M^ 

1 i?^^c? College Record, No. 27, Dec, 1917, Social Service Series, No. 4, 

57 



58 Education and the General Welfare 

for excursions in the free, sunny fields, among the trees and 
flowers, to gather memories that shall sweeten the long 
years of adult life. These years of happiness are denied 
many children, it may be, because of the extreme poverty 
or cupidity or indolence of a parent who was perhaps him- 
self a child worker, or because of a rigid home training 
in which the lessons of industry and thrift are early enforced 
as a matter of principle. Sometimes it is a child's own 
wish to be productively employed because the pittance 
earned will be of some help at home or because of a desire 
of certain free ideas with the proceeds of work. 

The Vicious Circle. Extreme poverty and ignorance 
are among the chief causes of child labor at its worst ; and 
child labor is in turn the cause of poverty and ignorance. 
And strange as it may seem they operate in the country as 
well as in the congested districts of the cities. We are 
prone to think that in an agricultural land like ours, 
where the soil is fertile and nature even unaided is bounti- 
ful, everybody is provided with the ordinary means of a 
contented and happy existence. Recent investigations have 
proved that this is not the case.^ It may not be generally 
known that tenants constitute the largest class of people 
living in the rural districts. If we may judge by conditions 
as reported in one of the states the life of the tenant and his 
children is usually a dreary round of unremittent toil, year 
in, year out, from generation to generation. Very few, we 

pp. 16-17. "Gainfully employed" — according to definition of U. S. 
Census Bureau — "parents working at home without pay and children 
spending more than half their time at school are not classified as gain- 
fully employed." 

1 Gibbons, C. E. : " Farm Children in Oklahoma," The Child Labor 
Bulletin, May, 1918, pp. 32-53. 



Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 59 

are told, have vegetable gardens and they do not raise their 
own supply of meat, milk, and butter. Their fare is 
limited to a few staple products and many are at times on 
the border of starvation. Their fiscal year is divided into 
two parts : the time to borrow and the time to pay. The 
first continues throughout the year, and the second comes 
at the end of the harvest. They sell all their crop, not 
even keeping seed for the next planting. They buy that 
when they need it, going into debt for it as for everything 
else. At the end of the year they are often still in debt — 
in greater debt than before. 

In many instances the landlord furnishes the tenant with 
only a shack for a house, with no outbuildings for a toilet 
or a barn to store crops and not even for a place to keep 
seed until it is needed. The term of the lease is usually 
for one year and as a rule tenants move annually. " They 
are prepared to do this with little trouble for they own 
nothing but what they can put into a wagon and drive off 
with." 

To get along as well as he does the tenant farmer re- 
quires the labor of his children. How could he hope to 
make both ends meet without it ?• 

To this situation the city parallel is the home worker in 
the tenement house.^ This is a more familiar story — of 
the mother who cards buttons at 2 cents a gross, three 
gross an hour, or " finishes " clothing at 8 or 9 cents an 
hour, or makes pajama frogs at 5 cents a dozen, with the 
help of children of school age or under. In an investigation 
made in 19 12 it was found that the artificial flower industry 

1 " Child Work in the Home," National Child Labor Committee, New 
York, 1918. 



6o Education and the General Welfare 

of New York City was carried on mostly in tenements and 
that more than half the workers were children under i6; 
ten per cent were under 8. As one mother said, " Making 
flowers at home is poor work, especially if you have only a 
few children to help you." In most states there is no way 
to reach this evil except through the compulsory school at- 
tendance laws. But even when children go to school they 
do home work before and after school hours. They come 
to school tired out, and then sitting still they can hardly keep 
awake and pay attention. They are absent in spite of their 
physical presence and they retard the work of the class. 

Remedial Legislation. Child labor, whether on the 
home farm, in the tenement, or the factory makes a low 
level of efficiency a habit which the child as he grows up 
will find it almost impossible to break. It will become the 
social heritage of his children and their children like an 
hereditary family plague. To break the vicious circle legis- 
lative interference is necessary. Regulative laws against 
child labor in the home cannot be enforced. Legislative 
action cannot abolish poverty. But it can promote the 
means of education and check ignorance with its attendant 
evils of poverty, improvidence, and bad household man- 
agement. This is where the Federal Vocational Education 
Law has its place for ultimate social betterment. It pro- 
vides for plans for full time schools or classes to fit children 
not less than fourteen years old for entrance into some trade 
or industry; for part time schools or classes in which chil- 
dren of not less than fourteen years can learn while they 
earn, and by learning about their chosen trade or industry 
or one they wish to enter they can increase their earn- 
ing capacity. Furthermore, it provides for continuation 



Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 6i 

schools where children of the same minimum age can ex- 
tend their general education along the lines of civic and 
vocational intelligence. It provides also for evening in- 
dustrial schools or classes where children of not less than 
sixteen years who are employed during the day can increase 
their industrial efficiency and enlarge their earning power. 

Work of Children under Fourteen. The law just re- 
ferred to does not provide for children under fourteen. It 
does not recognize the need or the propriety of specific in- 
dustrial training for younger children. It is generally re- 
garded inadvisable for a child to decide definitely what 
trade or industry to engage in before the age of fourteen. 
It is believed, however, that as the constructive instinct 
manifests itself in children of all ages opportunities should 
be provided to give it means of expression. This is de- 
sirable, not only to foster this useful interest for its ow^n 
sake, but also on the principle that all wholesome child 
activities should be encouraged to the exclusion through 
lack of time and opportunity of those that are unfavorable. 

This is especially true for children of about the age of 12 
to 14 years, a period which, as there is good reason to be- 
lieve from statistics of juvenile delinquency, is one of un- 
stable moral equilibrium. In many school systems a time 
is set apart for pupils to engage in constructive work be- 
ginning with the fifth grade. From the standpoint of arti- 
sanship the work is not to be taken seriously, but the chil- 
dren themselves are always eager to begin work at their 
simple projects. They do not always have the patience to 
finish what they begin, and if they see it through to the 
end, the product is usually very imperfect. But they get 
some practice in the use of tools and their craving for con- 



62 Education and the General Welfare 

struction is satisfied. More than this, where the equipment 
of apphances is sufficient to cover a considerable range of 
the practical arts, they can try themselves out and discover 
something of their natural bent and inclinations.^ This is 
important, as it will help them to determine through their 
own experience what industry to prepare for in the indus- 
trial school to be entered later. 

At this stage of development children should not be re- 
quired to adjust themselves to a program in constructive 
work. It is time for expression of the spirit of the ama- 
teur. If the school does not provide proper opportunities, 
the home should. Whether at home or in school, super- 
vision by teacher or parent or both is necessary for sugges- 
tion and encouragement. 

Constructive Activities of Children. We have been 
applying the term work to constructive activity. Below the 
age of 14 it is to be regarded as play, and more and more 
so as we go down the grades. When free to follow their 
inclinations children of all ages will devote a great portion 
of their time to many of its forms, even though the ma- 
terial offered for it may not be inviting. They will 
" work " in clay, sand, or mud, make impossible forms 
represent the human species, build doll houses, furnish 
them, make doll's clothes, make wagons, tops, and other 
things that go. They will do constructively in their own 
way what they see their elders do and will make toys inter- 
esting only to themselves. With kites, balloons, wagons, 
tops, bow and arrow, and other simple playthings an inter- 
est can begin in childhood and continue through stages of 

1 Snedden : " Practical Arts in General Education," Teachers College 
Record, Jan. and March, 1918. 



Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 63 

development until in adult years it will involve at the other 
end of the line the mechanical and mathematical principles 
of gas and steam engines, projectiles, airplanes, the gyro- 
scope, airships, etc.^ 

Right and Wrong Conditions of Work. But the chief 
thing is that interest must grow and not be commanded. 
Below the age of twelve, if anything like work is undertaken, 
it must come by spontaneous desire. Under the proper con- 
ditions it will also have educational value. When a child 
can be at home under the supervision of a sensible parent or 
among kindly disposed relatives, work on a farm may be a 
means of mental development even in a young child. There 
are horses to ride, cattle to drive to pasture, errands to run 
with a pet dog romping along, wild animals to watch and 
observe, domestic animals to care for — life on a farm 
may be a continuous round of educative and pleasurable 
observation. There may be an occasional adventure in 
fishing or a trip to the woods for hunting. To give zest to 
free excursions into the fields and woods, the child should 
not be unacquainted with some of the drudgery of work. 
Even for young children, there are routine activities which 
must be submitted to daily. When a child is old enough 
to undertake a job he should be encouraged to stick to it 
until it is finished, however distasteful it may become. For 
a girl to do housework and a boy to do chores are indispen- 
sable to cultivate patience and a feeling of responsibility. 
But close application to a task until it is done and done 
repeatedly should be compensated for by long periods of 
freedom. When, on the contrary, a boy on the farm, for 

iHall, G. Stanley: Educational Problems, New York, 191 1. Vol. 
I, Chapter VIII, pp. 602-611, D. Appleton and Company. 



64 Education and the General Welfare 

instance, before he is in his teens, is roused from sleep at 
five or before to help brother feed the stock, help mother 
with the wash, then hurry to the barn to help father cut 
feed and shell corn, then chop and pile wood for the 
kitchen stove, hurry through all meals, do the evening 
chores after dark, and hurry to bed soon afterward at ten, 
and continue day after day with a similar round of duties, 
with no time for books, and no time for thinking to him- 
self, we should not wonder if in his tender years he makes 
daily a firm resolve to get away from the farm as soon 
as possible and flee to the city. 

Stages of Development. Normally active children want 
to work at anything they see others do. And they will enjoy 
it until the novelty wears off. This is simply the instinctive 
sign in the young for a change of activity needed by the or- 
ganism for the exercise of a rested set of muscles. But even 
then, so long as the work is imitative of some one else's ac- 
tivity, following the initiative and plans of some one else, the 
factor it involves for mental growth will remain small. It is 
for this reason that the project or enterprise is introduced, in 
the schools and the home as a second step in which the child 
can cooperate with others in the plans as well as in their 
execution. In accordance with this step in this development 
as workers, children may be organized into groups or clubs 
to carry through gardening, farming, canning, or house- 
hold projects. Later as interest grows they will initiate 
individual enterprises to carry out a home project in some 
line of work. 

Desire to Earn Money. It has been found that many 
children who engage in some kind of employment not under 
school control during out-of-school hours and the long vaca- 



Conservation of Childhood — Child Labor 65 

tion to earn money, gradually lose interest in the work of the 
school According to an investigation made in 19 16, of 
1,177 of the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in eleven typical states, 
who expressed a desire to leave school, 38 per cent gave as 
their reason the desire to earn money, 22 per cent the desire 
to learn a trade, and 34 per cent declared they did not like 
school. At bottom the reasons were all the same, probably, 
the school was not in harmony with the impulse to do some- 
thing for a money return.^ All of these children were 
am^ong the number who had been engaged in work during 
out-of -school hours. Many were employed in occupations 
and under conditions that are undesirable for school children. 
If the commendable impulse to engage in industry were un- 
der the control of the school or of both the home and school, 
the outside activities of the children could be directed along 
lines that promote development and give promise of future 
good without loss in money returns. 

School-Controlled Enterprises vs. Child Labor. It is 
easy to distinguish between the attitude of the school and 
that of the employer of child labor. In the first the inter- 
est is in the child, his health, his powers, and his character; 
in the second it is primarily in the product of his labor, and 
in the child only so much as economic expedience demands. 
The one is concerned with the hygiene of work with recrea- 
tion and periods of rest, the other estimates only the value 
of the working hours. The one studies to accumulate 
power and earning capacity, the other exploits and ex- 
hausts. The remuneration for child labor in the home as a 
part of the total family income does not usually appear to 

1 Bulletin, 1917, No. 20, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 
Jarvis : Work of School Children During Out-of-School Hours. 



66 Education and the General Welfare 

the child in any direct appreciable form. In the factory 
the pay comes weekly in an envelope. In the school-con- 
trolled enterprise, the money return comes with the last 
transaction of the project, the last item of a simple record 
of accounts kept by the child himself from the beginning. 
In this way the financial element of the enterprise also pro- 
vides a part of the child's training. 



CHAPTER V 
School Attendance 

Compulsory Attendance Laws in the United States. 

Since it is not intended to keep children from labor that 
they may be idle in the streets and left to their own de- 
signs, school attendance laws are the necessary complement 
to child labor laws. All the states except Mississippi have 
compulsory attendance laws. In four other southern states 
the laws are not state wide.^ When the control in the mat- 
ter is left to local districts, there may be no attendance regu- 
lations at all, or there ma}^ be no minimum requirement of 
time the schools must be in session during the year, or there 
may indeed be no funds to keep the schools open for a 
definite time every year. 

To show the effect of local control, the conditions which 
obtained quite recently in one of these states may be cited. 
Twenty-eight counties had no compulsory attendance laws. 
In those that had, the requirement was that the children at- 
tend not less than three-fourths of the time school was in 
session. But the minimum term requirement was but three 
months, or sixty days. Thus the law could be satisfied 
with an attendance of forty-five days. In the same state 
when sufficient revenue for a sixty-day term was not avail- 
able, the local electors could by ballot dispense with school 
for a year and have the revenue accrue to the following year. 

In certain states, there are districts in which the property 

1 Bulletin No. 42, 1916; Bulletin No. 47, 1915. U. S. Bureau of 
Education. 

67 



68 



Education and the General Welfare 



valuation is so low that the maximum tax rate allowed by 
law does not provide sufficient revenue to keep the schools 
in session as long as the state law on the other hand re- 
quires. In Ohio, this situation is met by a special appro- 
priation for ''weak districts"; in 1910 the appropriation 
for this purpose was $50,000. 

In the following Chart VIII, the states are arranged in 
the order of the average length of the school term in days 
(A). This is followed by the minimum requirement of 
length of term (B), the average number of days attended 
by each child (C), the rank of the states on this basis (D), 
and the per cent of illiterates in population 10 to 14 years 
of age (E). 

CHART VIII 1 



1916 

State 



B 



D 



R. I. 


194.3 


N. Y. 


190.2 


Conn. 


183.2 


N. J. 


183.0 


Mass. 


181.7 


Md. 


178.0 


Mont. 


176.7 


Calif. 


176.0 


Ohio 


175.3 


Vt. 


175.0 


Wash. 


174.6 


Wise. 


1737 


Penn. 


172.7 


N. D. 


172.6 



School year 


1548 


I 


.6 


180 days 


1543 


2 


•3 


School year 


142.5 


7 


.3 


<< (( 


142.9 


6 


.5 


(( (I 


153.0 


3 


.2 


(( (< 


1240 


24 


2.5 


16 weeks 


129.4 


18 


1-3 


School year 


134.0 


16 


.6 


(( (C 


148.9 


4 


•3 


150 days 


140.2 


9 


.3 


School year 


136.2 


14 


.4 


6 months 


140.9 


8 


•3 


School year 


139. 1 


II 


•5 


C( ii 


II9.5 


27 


1.2 



1 Compiled from Report of U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1917, 
Vol. II and from Child Labor, Education, etc., 1917, published by 
National Child Labor Committee, New York City. 



School Attendance 



69 



I9I6 












State 


A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


Mich. 


172.0 


School year 


139.9 


10 


.3 


N. H. 


171-5 


a (I 


138.5 


12 


•3 


Me. 


171.2 


a a 


133.8 


13 


.8 


Del. 


170.7 


3 months 


93.5 


40 


1.5 


S. D. 


170.0 


School year 


1 18.9 


28 


.7 


Iowa 


170.0 


24 consecutive wks. 


128.8 


19 


.2 


Minn. 


167.7 


School year 


127.3 


21 


.3 


Colo. 


167.0 


(( li 


122.0 


25 


.9 


Nev. 


166.1 


(( (C 


124.9 


23 


4-3 


111. 


164.0 


6 months 


147.3 


5 


.3 


Kan. 


163.7 


School year 


126.5 


22 


.3 


Nebr. 


163-5 


12 weeks 


120.8 


26 


.3 


Utah 


163.0 


20 " 


132.5 


17 


.7 


Mo. 


161.8 


^4 school year 


118.5 


29 


1.2 


Ariz. 


160.0 


School year 


132.5 


17 


.7 


Ind. 


155.0 


" " 


127.4 


20 


.3 


Idaho 


154.9 


<( (( 


105.2 


32 


•4 


Wyo. 


153.0 


ii it 


1 17.0 


30 


.5 


Okla. 


152.0 


66% school year 


95.9 


37 


2.4 


Ore. 


151.0 


School year 


135.4 


15 


.2 


Ky. 


144.0 


(( (( 


95-0 


38 


6.0 


K M. 


142.5 


7 months 


95.0 


38 


II. I 


Va. 


141.0 


12 weeks 


98.4 


35 


9.2 


Ga. 


136.7 


4 months 


98.9 


34 


13.6 


W. Va. 


135.0 


24 weeks 


96.3 


36 


2.7 


Ala. 


1350 


60 days 


84.8 


45 


16.4 


Tex. 


135.0 


U (t 


91.8 


41 


6.3 


La. 


134.9 


School year 


99.4 


33 


24.6 


Ark. 


134.9 


% school year 


91.7 


42 


8.2 


Fla. 


1 30. 1 


80 days 


94.7 


39 


10.3 


N. C. 


124.2 


4 months 


85.4 


44 


lO.I 


Tenn. 


123.8 


80 consecutive days 


87.3 


43 


7.5 


Miss. 


123.0 




75-4 


46 


12.8 


S. C. 


108.5 


4 months 


72.9 


47 


17.8 



JO Education and the General Welfare 

In four states the minimum requirements for length of 
term Hsted in column B of Chart VIII are not state wide. 
The states are Rhode Island, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisi- 
ana. The first of these maintains the longest average 
school term in the United States, as may be seen by refer- 
ence to column A. The state being small there are few 
districts and in each of them a high standard prevails. In 
the larger agricultural states with widely differing condi- 
tions in local districts and without a state-wide minimum 
term requirement, state attendance laws will be largely 
without effect. The laws must require attendance during 
the time or fraction of the time the schools are in session. 

According to the latest statistics the following states have 
a minimum attendance requirement of 60 days or less: 
Arkansas, Alabama, Delaware, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, 
and Virginia. In Oklahoma it is 66 per cent of the school 
year ; this would make the requirement forty days per year. 

In column C we have the average number of days at- 
tended by each child enrolled. As this is a test of the ef- 
fectiveness of the schools, the states are ranked on this 
basis in column D. The large number of juvenile iUiter- 
ates in column E corresponds in a general way with the low 
records in attendance in column C. A large difference be- 
tween the average number of days schools are open in col- 
umn A and the average number of days attended in column 
C, the difference between promise and performance, may be 
seen particularly in the states of Delaware, Maryland, North 
Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma, not to mention those 
states that are at the bottom of the list in all respects. 

Essential Features of a Compulsory Attendance Law. 
The essential features of a school attendance law are the 



School Attendance 71 

age limit, the minimum time of attendance required, the 
exemptions allowed, means of enforcement, and a penalty. 
The lower age limit is usually 8 in some states, in others 7. 
The upper limit is as low as 12 in a few states, in most it is 
14, in many 15 and 16. The number of years the child is 
required to be in school ranges from 6 to 8 years. The 
minimum time of attendance required per year varies from 
two to nine months. 

Causes for Exemption. The usual causes for exemp- 
tion are illness when certified to by a physician, mental de- 
fect, physical defect such as blindness or deafness, poverty, 
and distance of home of child from school (usually if two 
miles or more). Many states that require attendance up 
to the age of 16 exempt children at 14 in case they have 
completed the elementary school grades. Of course, all 
children who take other than public school instruction 
equivalent in character and equal in duration are not re- 
quired to attend. 

The Penalty. The penalty is paid by the responsible 
parent or guardian of the truant child. It is usually a fine 
and ranges from a minimum of $5 to a maximum of $25 in 
some states, from a minimum of $10 to a maximum of $50 
in others. In case the parent or guardian has lost control 
over the child and cannot compel attendance, the child is 
regarded as a truant and is sent to a special school known as 
the parental or truant school. In California the law pro- 
vides that a child who is absent from school three consecu- 
tive days or tardy three days without proper cause is to be 
regarded as a truant, and when reported a truant three 
times or more, an habitual truant. In certain states dis- 
tricts may go together to establish schools for truants. In 



y2 Education and the General Welfare 

large cities a school for truants and incorrigibles is a part 
of the school system. In Colorado, and other states, any 
child who does not attend school as required, or is incor- 
rigible, or an habitual truant, or who wanders about the 
streets and public places during school hours and at night 
is a juvenile disorderly person, who may upon complaint by 
a truant officer be arrested and committed to an industrial 
school or to a children's home, if eligible on account of age. 
According to the laws of Ohio, 

Whoever being a parent, guardian, or other person convicted of 
violation of the compulsory attendance laws, fails or refuses to 
pay the fine or costs, or furnish the bond provided therein, shall 
be imprisoned in the county jail not less than ten days nor more 
than thirty days. 

(And) Whoever being an officer, principal, or teacher, or other 
person, neglects to perform a duty imposed upon him by the laws 
relating to compulsory education or employment of minors, for 
which a specific penalty is not provided by law, shall be fined not 
less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars for each 
offense.^ 

The School Census. One might ask how a teacher is 
to know from the first day whether there are any school 
absences. In well-regulated districts an official census is 
taken annually, in which all children of legal school age are 
enumerated. The clerk of the board is required to furnish 
the teacher or principal with a list of the children of school 
age. The teacher reports the children not in school and 
not excused. Their names are given to the probation or 
truant officer who gives notice to the parent or guardian. 
Later, proceedings are begun against the person responsible 

1 Ohio State Laws, Sec. 12980 and 12981. 



School Attendance 73 

for the child's attendance in the proper court designated 
in the law.^ 

Poverty as a Cause for Exemption. In many states 
the law provides that the city or county superintendent or 
the school committee or board may, at their discretion, 
exempt certain persons from the penalty of the law. The 
fine cannot be incurred by an indigent child. In Colorado 
and Michigan children over 14 years of age whose help is 
needed for their own or their parents' support; in Okla- 
homa, Nevada, Utah, North Dakota, North Carolina, those 
who are needed at home for support without any restriction 
in age, are exempted. In Michigan the board of educa- 
tion may give relief in money; in Tennessee and Pennsyl- 
vania such cases may be reported to the overseers of the 
poor. In Ohio the truant officer may furnish books and 
other relief to any child who otherwise would not be able 
to attend school ; and '* such child shall not be declared to 
be a pauper because of acceptance of such aid." 

Mothers' Pensions. As a means to meet this situation, 
thirty-one states have a system of mothers' pensions which 
the juvenile court or state or local board of mothers' aid 
administers. The support is for widowed mothers or 
those whose husbands are unable to work. In some states 
the amount to be paid per child is specified, in others it is 
left to the discretion of the board. 

Legal and Illegal Non-attendance. It follows that 
there are two kinds of non-attendance, legal and illegal. 
The following reasons were given to investigators in the 
home by the mother or the guardian for the non-attendance 

1 Steps taken according to the law of the state of Idaho — Bulletin 
No. 47, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education. 



74 Education and the General Welfare 

of 1,158 boys and girls absent from the public schools of 
Chicago.^ 

CHART IX 







Per cent 




Reasons for Absence 


Boys 


Girls 


Both 


Illness of child 


46 


51 


48 


Illness of others 


6 


9 


7 


Birth, death, wedding, etc. 


3 


3 


3 


Church attendance 


2 


2 


2 


Work at home 


9 


14 


12 


Lack of shoes or clothes 


8 


7 


7 


Errands and interpreting 


5 


2 


4 


Having company or visiting 


2 


2 


2 


" Tardy and so stayed at home " 


4 


4 


4 


Working or looking for v^ork 


2 


* 


I 


Excused by teacher 


* 


* 


* 


Inclement weather 


I 


I 


I 


Various trivial excuses 


5 


3 


4 


Truancy 


7 


2 


5 


* Less than one per cent. 









Home Conditions. The cases of absence here listed 
were found in a poor immigrant section of a large city. 
The crowded living conditions made sickness among the 
children a common occurrence and the hard struggle to get 
things to eat and wear made it impossible even with the 
best of intentions to keep the children regularly in school. 
Quoting from the book cited above : 

" In many cases the child was ill because his physical needs had 
not been properly looked after, because the mother was over- 
worked or ignorant or perhaps very poor, and the child had there- 
fore not been taken to a dentist or had his tonsils looked after or 

1 From Abbott and Breckinridge : " Truancy and Non-attendance 
in Chicago Schools," University of Chicago Press, 1917, p. 129. 



School Attendance 75 

been given some other necessary preventive treatment. Some- 
times the child's under-nourished condition or lack of warm cloth- 
ing and of shoes that would keep the feet dry had made him sus- 
ceptible to colds and other illnesses. The fact that approximately 
one-fifth of all the children enrolled should within three weeks be 
absent because of sickness shows an urgent need for school nurses 
and thorough medical inspection. It may be noted too that the 
visits made by a school nurse, who is also a social worker, not 
only protect the child from unnecessary absences due to pre- 
ventive illnesses, but such visits often afford an excellent oppor- 
tunity for general family service, instruction in better methods of 
housekeeping, better care of all the children, as well as help in 
the process of Americanizing many homes." 

Sickness of other members of the family accounts for 
seven per cent of the absences. Work at home for twelve 
per cent more. One boy v^as kept home to watch fires 
for a sick father, another because his mother had gone out 
to see a doctor; Bruno, 12, was helping his mother do the 
washing; Genevieve, 12, was tending the shop and taking 
care of three younger children and a sick mother; Helen, 
II, was taking care of her sick mother and the new baby, 
and also of six other children younger than herself; a boy 
of 1 1 ran errands while his mother sewed, another waited at 
home for coal to be delivered so he could carry it in. In 
immigrant families a child going to school and speaking 
English is often kept at home to act as interpreter for a 
member of the family; he has to wait till the plumber 
comes, for instance, to tell him what to do, go with his 
father to court, with his mother to hunt rooms, or with an 
aunt while she looks for a job.^ 

1 Abbott and Breckinridge : " Truancy and Non-attendance in Chicago 
Schools," University of Chicago Press, 1917. Chapter IX : " Non- 
attendance at the Source," p. I28ff. 



76 Education and the General Welfare 

Non-attendance in Rural Communities, Causes of. 

According to the Bulletin of the Bureau of Education, 
1913, No. 8, entitled " The Status of Rural Education in 
the United States," the per cent of daily attendance of every 
100 pupils enrolled in the rural schools of Maryland is only 
51, the lowest percentage of attendance in the rural schools 
of all the states. Delaware is next to the lowest with 51.4 
per cent; Colorado next with 53.6. The states ranking 
highest are Oregon with 90.6; Connecticut, 88.4; Massa- 
chusetts, 86. 

In a study of rural school attendance in the state of Ala- 
bama ^ made in 19 18, the year after the compulsory at- 
tendance law of 191 5 went into effect, the causes of non- 
attendance are classified. The investigation was made in 
twelve typical rural counties. The number of children cov- 
ered was 4,371 ; they were absent a total number of 156,417 
days, and for the following reasons : 



Days absent on account of 




Farm work 


50,620 


House work 


7,175 


Illness 


46,323 


Bad weather 


12,447 


Bad roads 


2,721 


Poverty 


2,354 


Indifference 


21,412 


Miscellaneous 


13,365 



Truancy. Actual truancy when the child absents him- 
self from school without the knowledge of the parent is 
comparatively rare. It is much more common among boys 

ijoffe: "Rural School Attendance in Alabama," in Child Welfare 
in Alabama. An inquiry by the National Child Labor Committee under 



School Attendance yj 

than girls. In a study of loo typical cases there were 95 
boys and 5 girls. Only 68 were of normal mentality. The 
largest number, 32, were thirteen years of age; 83 ranged 
in age from eleven to fourteen inclusive. As might be ex- 
pected, only a small number were not retarded.^ 

Years retarded Per cent 

6 

1 22 

2 21 

3 17 

4 13 

5 i6 

6 2 

7 3 

In another study of 1,092 truant boys ^ twenty per cent 
were not retarded ; the largest number, nearly twenty-two 
per cent were retarded four years. 

Causes of Truancy. A limited study of truancy in the 
schools of New York City^ revealed the folowing as the 
chief causes: gang influence, moving picture shows, indif- 
ferent parents, mercenary parents, insufficient guardian- 
ship, faulty teaching or discipline, backwardness, lack of in- 
terest because of unjustified retardation, physical weak- 
ness, oversize, opportunities for employment. In the study 
of 100 cases before mentioned, described as typical, the 
causes of truancy were classified as follows : 

the auspices and with the cooperation of the University of Alabama, 
Edward N. Clopper, director, p. 101-124. National Child Labor 
Bulletin, New York, 1918. 

1 Bulletin No. 29, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education. 

- Abbott and Breckinridge, op. cit., pp. 159, 181. 

3 Report of the Superintendent New York City Schools, 1912, p. 
245ff. 



78 Education and the General Welfare 



Fault at home 


29 per cent 


deceased parents 




desertion 




intemperance 




employed mothers 




unemployed fathers 




Dislike of school 


26 


Bad companions 


23 


Fault of boy 


II 


Desire to work 


10 


Illness 


4 



In another study of 3,990 truant boys, about one out of 
every three came from homes broken by death, desertion, or 
divorce.^ 

Loss on Account of Transfers. While in the large 
cities the attendance problem is most acute among the chil- 
dren of poor and ignorant non-English speaking foreigners, 
there is also a large aggregate loss of schooling in the more 
prosperous districts on account of occasional absence and 
transfers from one school to another. To be sure, among 
the poor and shifting population transfers are more com- 
mon than elsewhere. An instance has been reported of a 
child who entered the second grade of a city school in 
November ; it was his eighteenth school enrollment. In the 
city of New York there were between September, 1914, 
and January, 19 15, 84,000 transfers from one school to 
another. Of these transfers 13,060 were not completed 
within seven days, the pupils not having been reported as 
enrolled in the schools which were to receive them. Ab- 
sence through transfer does not affect a school's average 
attendance record, as this is based on the enrollment, but 

^ Abbott and Breckinridge, op. cit. 



School Attendance 79 

it is contrary to the spirit of the law. In a number of cases 
that have been traced, it is found that as many as two, 
three, four, and five weeks of schoohng may be lost through 
lack of ordinary care in the matter of transfers. The dif- 
ficulties are usually increased when the transfer is made 
between a country and a city school or between a public 
and a parochial school. *' Not found " cases are often 
such as have been reported as transfers, which are in reality 
fraudulent attempts by parents to take children out of 
school and put them to work.^ 

Trivial Reasons for Non-attendance. Frequently re- 
peated occasional absence of children coming from the more 
comfortable homes, whose parents allow them to stay out 
of school for trivial reasons, is a serious hindrance to 
school progress. A law that designates an absence of three 
successive days as truancy is but a mild deterrent to the 
evil of non-attendance. It does not reach the occasional 
absentee. In some cities the rules of the board of educa- 
tion allow the truant officer to proceed at any time even 
after one absence if it is known to be willful. 

Cooperation of Truant Officer and Teacher. While it 
is the duty of the truant officer to enforce the compulsory 
attendance and the continuation school law, and to dispense 
relief, he needs, in the first place, the intelligent and faith- 
ful cooperation of the teacher who is in a position to know 
the children best, who must know them individually and 
the home environment from which they come in order to 
teach them effectively even though there were no attend- 
ance laws. He needs as a matter of course the assistance 

1 Klapper : " The Bureau of Attendance and Child Welfare," Educa- 
tional Review, Vol. 50, p. 369. 



8o Education and the General Welfare 

of the principal, and he should have the cooperation of the 
police and other civic bodies. 

In some cities the policeman in the performance of his 
new function of positive social service apprehends every 
child of school age found on the street during school hours 
and brings him to the nearest school. To avoid confusion, 
each child rightfully absent is given an identification slip 
which v^^ill show that the child may be at large. 

Support of the Attendance OfBcers. When it is 
known that the court stands back of the attendance depart- 
ment, parents learn to respect an order from the truant 
officer. Social agencies often have information of value in 
regard to the home conditions of the child. Charitable so- 
cieties may donate supplies of clothing and food to chil- 
dren whose absence is due to poverty, and the psychological 
clinic may discover that non-attendance is caused by mental 
deficiency. 

Importance of Regular Attendance. Regular attend- 
ance is the teacher's foremost professional concern. The 
school may fail to reach its aim in any child on account 
of physical defect or poor health or lack of interest or 
ability, but through non-attendance it must fail. Every 
value of school activity is conditioned on the physical pres- 
ence of the children. The pupil who is behind on account 
of absence from any cause and who fails of promotion and 
must repeat the work, is usually a burden to the teacher 
and a drag upon the progress of his classmates. Through 
the absence of each child the state, the nation, and the local 
community suffer a certain loss of the funds provided for 
maintenance and equipment unused. If we may assume 
that a school in question is a good one, irregular attendance 



School Attendance 8i 

is its prime evil. On the other hand, observance of strict 
and regular attendance begets respect for order and for 
punctuality in all obligations, and provides one of the moral 
values of school life. 

A Form of Corrective Procedure. There are two 
kinds of measures taken to promote regular attendance: 
corrective and preventive. Under the first comes the co- 
ercive influence of the truant officer to restore attendance. 
Under the second comes, among other influences, what the 
teacher may be able to do to prevent absence. 

The attendance regulations of the board of education of 
one of the larger cities are as follows : 

1. Whenever the principals or teachers have reason to believe 
that the absence of a pupil from school is due to truancy they 
shall notify the parent or guardian by mail or otherwise and if 
after the second notification he has not returned to school or sat- 
isfactory explanation of absence has not been made, the case shall 
be reported to the truant officer. 

2. At the close of the school every morning and afternoon, it 
shall be the duty of each teacher to notify parent or guardian of 
each pupil without exception who is absent or tardy in attendance. 
Each notice sent shall be noted opposite pupil's name in the reg- 
ister by the letter N in the proper column of the day. 

3. Upon the return of the pupil after an absence the parent or 
guardian shall give in person or in writing an excuse stating the 
cause of absence. If the cause is due to the sickness of the pupil 
or necessary attendance upon a sick member of the family or a 
death in the family of the pupil, the absence shall be excused and 
so noted by the letter E after the sign of notification made as 
above. 

4. In every case of absence of a pupil for more than three half 
days in four consecutive weeks for any other cause than permitted 
above without satisfactory excuse to the teacher, the absentee 
shall without exception or favor be reported to the truant officer. 



82 Education and the General Welfare 

In accordance with the first rule a case of truancy or 
other illegal non-attendance may be proceeded against as 
soon as it is discovered. The ordinary procedure when 
there is no '' reason to believe " that the non-attendance is 
illegal, is given in the other regulations. Much waste of 
effort may be caused by reports to the truant officer of a 
non-attendance that afterwards proves to have been un- 
preventable. The machinery of the attendance department 
is sometimes invoked before the cause of non-attendance 
is definitely known to be illegal. In American cities there 
is usually a small number of truant officers in proportion to 
the number of children enrolled. Since the business of 
teaching requires an intimate knowledge of the home condi- 
tions of the children, even though the attendance record 
were perfect, the teacher is in a position to know where il- 
legal non-attendance may be expected. Where willful tru- 
ancy may be expected may be known from the behavior of 
the children at school. With this information and a little 
further inquiry the teacher may often eliminate all doubt 
as to the motive of absences and relieve the attendance 
department of needless investigation. 

Preventive Measures. An indifferent attitude to reg- 
ular attendance on the part of the parents of a district 
should be corrected. It may be possible to do this by 
means of a campaign among them for an improvement of 
the average attendance record and the good name of the 
school. They may be ignorant of the necessity of regular 
attendance and of the proper standard which the school 
should try to reach through their cooperation. It is possible 
also to appeal to the individual parent to assist the teacher 



School Attendance 83 

in keeping his child at school when it is for the good of 
both the school and the child. 

Often the attendance is good to begin with the first week 
or two of the term, only to grow slack as the days go by 
through a waning interest. The teacher should try to an- 
ticipate such possibilities not only by keeping the school 
thoroughly alive but also by helping each individual child 
to acquire some special school interest such as may be found 
in games and play, music, drawing, or some other branch 
of study or skill, which will in time carry interest in the 
other activities of the school along with the force of its 
momentum. 

And then the school or room spirit may be appealed to 
when the record is good in order to keep it good. Some 
teachers appeal in an effective way to the individual chil- 
dren of the grades by issuing to them a small printed form 
with the name of the child filled in certifying to the fact of 
faithful attendance and good deportment. It is a good prac- 
tice, too, to call the attention of the whole school to perfect 
records and post the record for all at stated periods where 
all may see it. It is a great mistake for a teacher to as- 
sume that the truant office takes charge of the matter to re- 
lieve her of all responsibility in regard to attendance. Pre- 
vention is the chief function of attendance management and 
this lies largely within the teacher's province. 

General Effect of Attendance Laws. Although there 
is much difficulty in the enforcement of the compulsory at- 
tendance law, school work, especially in the cities, could 
hardly be carried on without it. Its value in general lies 
in its bringing to the consciousness of the parent the fact 



84 Education and the General Welfare 

that the law is available for transgressors. Through its 
influence the child that can be reached in no other way can 
be restrained by a fear of the parental school, and the par- 
ent can be threatened with a fine. However, only a small 
per cent of the cases reported by the principals to the 
truant officer, less than two per cent in some known in- 
stances, finally get into court. These are only the cases 
where parents absolutely refuse to send the children to 
school after repeated warnings from the attendance officer. 
When a parent is stubborn in the matter, it is almost with- 
out exception due to the economic need of the child in 
the home. Usually after the case is taken to court the par- 
ent gives in, and the procedure is at an end. Rarely is a 
fine imposed, never if the parent is unable to pay it. In 
a number of cities, many of the cases that are finally re- 
ferred to the chief attendance officer to dispose of are set- 
tled out of court. For if an attempt were made to send to 
court all cases referred for prosecution, the court could not 
handle them with its other duties. 

" It often happens that parents who are defiant about conforming 
to the law become reasonable when the purpose of the law is ex- 
plained, and when they learn that the state is actually trying to 
make it possible for them to give their children an equal oppor- 
tunity with other children." ^ 

1 From report of chief attendance officer, Cincinnati Public Schools, 
for the year ending August 31, 1917. 



CHAPTER VI 
Guidance Function of the School 

Educational Guidance. The school combines with its 
educational aims the function of guidance of the children 
toward a suitable life work. It is a part of the state's 
guidance plan to prevent child labor and compel school at- 
tendance. Another part of the plan is to prevent prema- 
ture withdrawal from school. The larger meaning of vo- 
cational guidance is not to find jobs for children; the school 
is not a rival of the employment bureau. To be consistent 
the school must exercise the guidance function with educa- 
tional aims. It is not a money-making but an educational 
enterprise. Its purpose is not to open a road to immediate 
profit but to keep the child as long as may be necessary to 
provide the means of future development in a well-chosen 
occupation and for a greater productive gain in the long 
run. 

Keeping Children in School. If the outlay of school 
effort and expense is justified for all the children, then it is 
an essential economy to keep all the children in school as 
long as may be necessary to reach the aims for which the 
schools have been established. 

In the great majority of the states children under four- 
teen are not permitted to work in certain enumerated oc- 
cupations and not under sixteen in others. The federal 

85 



86 Education and the General Welfare 

law makes these same limits uniform in all the states by- 
levying a tax of lo per cent on the net profits accruing 
from the products of child labor in certain lines of work 
and under certain conditions.^ Although this law affects 
only a relatively small number of child workers, it exerts 
considerable influence in that it sets a standard to which 
the states will in time probably conform, with respect to 
occupations exclusively under their own jurisdiction. 

As far as the schools are concerned, the child labor laws 
imply that the child should complete the elementary course 
by the age of fourteen. Beginning at the age of six, the 
child should complete the eight-year elementary course in 
eight years. This is so far from what is accomplished 
in some of the states that in a few of them a child of four- 
teen is legally qualified to leave school to go to work at the 
completion of the fourth grade; in many the limit of ad- 
vancement required is the fifth grade; in Ohio it is the 
sixth grade for boys who may leave at 15 and the seventh 
for girls who may leave at 16. In a few states the comple- 
tion of the elementary course is required. In others it is 
provided that the child shall show ability to read, and to 
write legibly simple English sentences (a few add an ex- 
amination in the fundamentals of arithmetic) with or with- 
out the requirement of the completion of a certain number 
of grades. 

Employment Certificates. On leaving school at legal 
age to go to work, it becomes necessary for the child to 
procure an employment certificate. The essential steps in 
the procedure are as follows : 

The child accompanied by the parent goes to the ofHce 

1 See page 55. 



Guidance Function of the School 87 

from which the certificate is issued with evidence of age 
and the school record made out by the principal of the 
school last attended. He is also required to bring a card or 
statement including the signature from the firm that is to 
employ him. He must also have a physician's certificate 
to show that he is capable of doing the work he expects 
to undertake. All these requirements having been fulfilled, 
a certificate is issued and given to the child. In some cities 
a literacy test ^ as well as a physical examination is required 
in addition to the school record. Those children who are 
of the age at which no permit is required must furnish the 
employer a birth certificate just the same. 

Permits to work during vacations may be issued to chil- 
dren who are of legal age although they have not completed 
the required grade. 

When a child withdraws or is dismissed from work the 
certificate must be returned to the issuing office with the 
reasons definitely stated; if they are not known, this fact 
must be stated. 

Illegal Withdrawal. The chief problem of both the 
child labor and the compulsory attendance laws is their en- 
forcement. Laws are enacted and placed on the statute 
books to satisfy, often only to quiet, an aroused public sen- 
timent. Then it is assumed that they will somehow and by 
some proper person be enforced. By accident or design the 
means of enforcement are not always clearly set forth, so 
that there is much room for evasion. Not all violations, we 
may be sure, are reported and when suit is brought even 

1 Administration of Child Labor Laws, Part 2, Employment Cer- 
tificate System, New York. Children's Bureau, U. S. Department of 
Labor. 



88 Education and the General Welfare 

in the states where the laws themselves are satisfactory 
the number of acquittals have been suspiciously large. As 
far as the laws themselves are concerned, the teacher should 
form a part of the public that voices sentiments in favor of 
a strict enforcement. The more so because it is the 
teacher's professional as well as his ordinary human and 
civic duty. 

Premature Legal Withdrawal. Since the law fixes 
upon an age of withdrawal, it has the effect in a measure 
of emphasizing that period as the time to leave school and 
go to work. Parents often say at that time, ^' He is old 
enough, why shouldn't he go to work?" Leaving school 
at legal age has become the rule to such an extent that the 
children themselves and even the teachers have come to look 
upon it as a matter of course. As a result there is an 
annual exodus of the children from the schools even 
before, sometimes long before, they are ready to enter high 
school. 

In American cities it is a common practice to carry only 
half of all the children of the elementary schools to the final 
elementary grade and only one in ten to the final year of 
the high school.^ In the rural schools the showing is as bad 
and worse as far as the high school is concerned. Taking 
a state which is fairly representative, and in which the city 
and the rural enrollment are so nearly the same as to offer 
a basis of comparison, we find the following grade distribu- 
tion: 

lAyres: "Laggards in Our Schools," Charities Publication Com- 
mittee, 1909; Bulletin No. 4, 1907, U. S. Bureau of Education; "Woman 
and Child Wage Earners in the United States," U. S. Senate Docu- 
ment, No. 645, 2nd Session, 6ist Congress, 1910. 



Guidance Function of the School 89 

CHART X 

Grade Distribution, City and Rural Districts of Ohio 
Compared, 1916^ 



Grade 


City Schools 


Rural Schools 


I 


60,091 


55,359 


2 


52,642 


40,652 


3 


51,108 


41,399 


4 


49,386 


40,825 


5 


45,371 


36,764 


6 


39,263 


31,207 


7 


34,187 


28,155 


8 


29,533 


28,014 


High School 






I 


23,383 


5,517 


2 


15,953 


3,828 


3 


10,750 


2,573 


4 


9,329 


1,397 



This does not include the villages of the state; only the 
number of children in the grades and in the years of the 
high school in the rural and city schools. A marked fall- 
ing off is seen in the rural high school partly because of the 
distance of the child's home from the school and partly 
because the labor of the child is much in demand on the 
farm. 

Why Children Drop Out of School. Children with- 
draw prematurely from school for about the same reasons 
as for irregular attendance : ill health, home conditions, or 
school experiences. Studies that have been made by trac- 
ing the motives for leaving school to their source show that 
two out of five children leave school of their own choice. 

1 Annual Rep. Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1916, Columbus, 
Ohio. 



90 Education and the General Welfare 

When the supposed cause is necessity of the parent or when 
the financial aid though not needed is desired by the parent, 
it has been shown that whether the child remains in school 
or not depends more upon the parent's attitude in the mat- 
ter than upon the size of the family income.^ It is after 
all a question with the parent whether going to school is 
worth while for the child. 

About half of those w'ho go to work are dissatisfied with 
school. They dislike the teacher, dislike study, etc., or are 
just tired of school. Not only dull but bright pupils are 
among the dissatisfied who leave school to go to work. 
The other half, who speak well of both the teacher and the 
school, are usually those who are naturally industrious and 
want to go to work to earn money. They do not dislike 
school, but they like to be free to go to work, often prefer- 
ring the restrictions of the factory along with older persons 
to those of the school in company with smaller children. 
Besides, the influence of their companions who have gone 
to work and speak well of it draw them away from school. 
Vacation employment often marks the beginning of a de- 
sire to leave the "make-believe " life of the school for the 
realities of industry. On inquiry of 583 children who left 
school, it was found that 65 per cent would not, according 
to their own testimony, have been desirous of staying if 
training in manual or industrial art had been given in 
school.^ 

Vocational Guidance. The work in which city children 
who leave prematurely engage is usually of the type for 
which the schools do not, and really cannot, definitely pre- 
pare. It nearly always consists of routine activities, short 
1 " Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United States," op. cit. 



Guidance Function of the School 91 

and oft-repeated processes on parts of manufactured prod- 
ucts of the greatest diversity even in a single industry, easy 
to learn and leading to nothing higher ; or the work may be 
that which is common to all industries, to prepare the fin- 
ished product for the market : marking, labeling, wrapping, 
counting, packing, and boxing. Each of these can be done 
by any child of ordinary intelligence without school prep- 
aration. By way of contrast, the rural child is more for- 
tunately situated, for the school can be connected with the 
farm even in the earlier stages of school progress, and the 
several occupations of agriculture afford unlimited oppor- 
tunities for mental development. 

If children must or will leave school to go to work, or 
if it is deemed best that some of them should leave, the 
school should share with the family in the responsibility of 
helping them to decide what it is best for them to do. 
If, in accordance with the law, many withdraw at the min- 
imum legal age, then during the last year they are in school 
they should study the conditions of the occupations open 
to those of their preparation and capacity. 

The Teacher as Counselor. No one in the school sys- 
tem is in a better position to give wise counsel and sympathy 
than the teacher. She deals more intensively with the pu- 
pils as individuals than any other person in the system. 
She alone is in a position of daily contact with the mind of 
the pupil. But even she may not know her pupils well 
enough to be a friendly guide. According to the usual 
practice, she has only one year to get acquainted with them 
as she usually does not advance with her grade. The inter- 
est acquired in the children is largely severed when at the 
end of one year they pass to another room. The expecta- 



92 Education and the General Welfare 

tion of having a new set of pupils every year does not con- 
duce to thinking definitely of their future economic adjust- 
ment. If the teacher does not learn to know the child, no 
one in the school will, and the child with no moral support 
from any one submits to the fate of a premature departure 
from school and a handicap for life largely determined per- 
haps by a short-sighted or mercenary parent. 

To meet this difficulty the school organization may assign 
each teacher a group of from twenty to thirty pupils who 
report daily in the same room to the teacher, who may study 
the tastes and particular aptitudes of each and investigate 
the home conditions. Under this plan each student has a 
continuing adviser during the years preceding withdrawal, 
and in the high school during four years. For several 
years the pupils are given some experience with drawing, 
cabinet making, turning, pattern making, foundry, forging, 
machine work, or some other line of industry. This experi- 
ence will reveal to the adviser and the pupil himself what 
he likes to do and what he is best fitted for, and determines 
the line of specialization that is to follow in continued 
study in school or productive work outside. The vocational 
guidance department proper only ftmctions at the end of the 
school course and the beginning of actual work in remu- 
nerative employment, in bringing together the pupil and the 
position for which by ability and training he is best fitted. 

Money Value of School Work. Neither the parent nor 
the child will appreciate in many instances the argument 
that a child should complete a full course for certain spirit- 
ual values and mental satisfactions that will accrue in the 
long years to come. It will seem to them more to the 
point to learn that no one really desires to employ a person 



Guidance Function of the School 93 

in a worth-while occupation before the age of 16 to 18, and 
that to continue in school will be time gained in the in- 
creased money return to those who come later in order 
that they may come prepared to engage in industry. It has 
been found that even in the lowest grades of factory work 
the uneducated laborer is often unsuccessful. In one fac- 
tory only 35 per cent of the unskilled remained even in 
unskilled work, 5 per cent went somewhat higher, while 
40 per cent had to be dismissed and 20 per cent left of their 
own accord for one reason or another. What becomes of 
these drifters from one job to another? 

Numerous studies of the money value of education have 
been published; one of these is a report^ of a committee 
of the Brooklyn Teachers' Association published in 1909 
comparing the earnings of New York City children who left 
school at 14 years of age with those of children who re- 
mained until they were 18. The average weekly earnings 
were as follows : 

CHART XI 
Comparison of Wages of Children Who Left New York City 

Schools at 14 Years of Age with Those Who Left at 18 
Weekly Salary Left School 



at 


at 14 


at 18 


14 


$ 4.00 


$ 


15 


4-50 





16 


5.00 





17 


6.00 





18 


7.00 


10.00 


19 


8.50 


10-75 


20 


9.50 


15.00 


21 


9.50 


16.00 


22 


11.75 


20.00 



1 Bulletin No. 22, 1917, U. S. Bureau of Education, p. 29, 32. 



94 Education and the General Welfare 



Weekly Salary 




Left 


School 




at 


at 14 






at 18 


23 


11.75 






21.00 


24 


12.00 






23.00 


25 


12.75 






31.00 



The total salary of the average child who left at 14 was 
$5112.50 at the age of 25, while the total salary of the 
average child who left at 18 was $7337.50. 

" It is seen that already, at 25 years of age, the boy who had re- 
mained in school till he was 18 had received about $2,000 more 
salary than the boy who left at 14, and was then receiving $900 
per year more. From this time on the salary of the better boy 
will rise still more rapidly. However, reckoning the average dif- 
ference in salary at only $900 per year, this equals an annuity 
that would cost $19,000 if bought from a reliable insurance com- 
pany — not a bad return from four years of youth devoted to 
school." 

It is held that the average value of school to each child 
is over $9.00 a day. 

Higher Values. But while the money value of school 
work is not to be despised, the school must not encourage 
false notions of success. It is not true that the longer one 
goes to school the more money he will be able to command 
when he comes to be an earner. Besides, social efficiency is 
not to be measured in terms of net income. Those who pur- 
sue extensive courses of study to realize the higher values of 
life are usually willing to forego large money returns for a 
broader vision of human society. School guidance will 
largely fail if it does not also help to discover those who are 
by nature and training fitted for the larger service of the 
community and the state in the fields of scholarship and the 
professions. 



CHAPTER VII 

Buildings and Grounds 

Material Attractions. School buildings are now 
erected on broader principles of economy than formerly. 
There was a time when it was the ruling policy to keep the 
initial expense as low as possible, and in many instances 
to neglect needed repairs until the building became almost 
uninhabitable. In the early days sites were sometimes se- 
lected that could be used for no other purpose; a ledge of 
rock with no soil to till and hardly accessible in winter over 
the icy slopes, or a low marshy place that could not be 
drained. An instance is reported of a school located at the 
present time next to the village graveyard where the children 
play hide-and-seek among the tombstones. A total disre- 
gard of a suitable place for school work seems to indicate 
a belief in education as an immanent spirit. It is true 
that learning is always taking place under any circumstances, 
whenever there is a desire to learn. The proverbial log in 
the woods with a teacher on one end and a student on the 
other would do very well if we could assume a supreme 
natural desire for educational development. But this is not 
the case. It is not true of the grown-up, much less of the 
child. Immature minds need inducements of the higher 
material sort to undertake a course of training that raises 
them above their mere instinctive level of life. 

95 



g6 Education and the General Welfare 

Every one has known of school buildings and grounds 
that invited the contempt and derision of the community. 
They represented the lowest conception of a gathering place 
for human beings. State centralization of control has com- 
pelled a change. In the most favored states the new build- 
ings are such as arrest the attention, excite the interest, and 
command the respect of the community. The aim is to 
make the buildings and grounds beautiful, healthful, com- 
fortable, useful, convenient, and safe. 

Location of the Schoolhouse. The location of the 
schoolhouse follows the principle of the greatest good to 
the greatest number. If the inhabitants of a district are 
evenly distributed the schoolhouse would naturally be placed 
at the geographical center, or allowance may be made for 
the probable direction that will be taken by the expanding 
population in the future. The site is chosen from the stand- 
point of accessibility, health, and hygienic and agreeable sur- 
roundings. In the large cities it should be away from the 
noise of street traffic and the danger of passing vehicles to 
the children in going and coming. 

Types of Buildings. In the building of schoolhouses 
the structural unit is the single room. Buildings may be of 
one room, there may be many rooms under one roof, or 
there may be a group of separate one-room buildings. The 
one-room building is the simplest type and is common in the 
rural districts. 

The many-room building is well-known in towns and 
cities, and in the consolidated school of the rural districts. 
In the cities the growing population makes it necessary fre- 
quently to accommodate an overflow of attendance in tem- 
porary quarters by providing portable one-room buildings. 






t 

c 
'5) 

c 
W 




97 




WINDOW^) e'-d UP FROM FLOOR. 



Figure 2A. Plan of One-Room Building (Figure 2) Suggesting Use 
FOR Social Center Purposes 1 

1 American School Board Journal, April, 1919, p. 48. Designed by 
Div. of Rural Engineering, U. S. Bur. of Public Roads. 



98 



Buildings and Grounds 99 

which are grouped conveniently near the many-room build- 
ing. 

The plans of a building may be so drawn as to provide 
for additions to take care of future expansion. Figure 3 ^ 
will serve as an illustration, with initial plans (Figs. 4 & 5) .^ 

The one-story school buildings have the advantage of 
greater safety, less noise inside, and less cost. They do not 
require stairways, which are always expensive. They are 
easier to keep clean as there is no dust from above. They 
are well-adapted to the lower grades. In regard to initial 
expense for building, one-story schools have been built at 
a cost of from two to six thousand dollars per classroom 
while the two story type has cost from seven to thirteen 
chousand dollars per classroom.^ 

The many-room building has an advantage in the respect 
that it is capable of the larger and more impressive effects 
in architecture. Parents as well as their children take a 
certain satisfaction in their relation to a large and attractive 
building. The many-room building in the rural consoli- 
dated district gives the physical impression of importance 
where it is often most needed to stimulate interest in the 
work of the school. But the single-room plan, or unit 
group, may be adapted also to a large school. Instead of 
having eight rooms, for instance, under one roof and in 
one structure, the eight rooms may all be in separate units. 

1 These plans are from American School Board Journal, Vol. 52, 
Jan., 1916, pp. 22-23. Courtesy of Mr. W. C. Bruce, Editor. For 
plans for complete development of scheme, see the same reference. 

2 Todd: "One-Story and Cottage Schools," American School Board 
Journal, Vol. 52, April 1916, p. 20. 

Perkins : ** One-Story School Buildings," American School Board 
Journal, Vol. 56, April, 1918, p. 17. 




h^ fe 



4-i 
2 



100 




> 



pq 






Ph < 



s < 

SO 
o 
c 



FQ 




I 



E 
o 



lOI 



I02 Education and the General Welfare 

Here the architectural effects may also be pleasing if the 
different units are parts of a general plan. 

It is claimed by the advocates of the unit group plan that, 
except for the initial outlay of expense for larger grounds, 
their plan is cheaper, that it is more sanitary, that it 
meets the demands of expansion in a more satisfactory way, 
that it does not require the construction of large halls and 
stairways, that the work of keeping the buildings clean is 
much reduced, that there is less chance of fire, less noise, 
less distraction, and that it makes the supervision of rooms 
and grounds easier. 

Size of Grounds. An initial outlay for ample grounds 
with a view to future needs is usually a wise procedure. 
There is always a rapid depreciation in the value of build- 
ings after a period of use, but there is a rise in the value of 
grounds, especially in the ci'ties. With ample grounds to 
begin with, additions can be made without larger outlay 
for land which the location of the school has served to en- 
hance in value. 

In many states certain limits in the size of the grounds 
are prescribed. In one of the states these may not be more 
than half an acre, in another one acre, in another one and 
a half, in Massachusetts not more than two, in Maryland 
and North Dakota not more than five acres. In the state 
of Washington there may be ten acres under certain condi- 
tions. Ohio gives state aid to elementary schools making 
one of the conditions that the size of the grounds shall be 
from one to three acres, depending on the class to which 
the elementary school belongs. Present tendencies every- 
where are indicated by the fact that the older type of legisla- 
tion states that there shall be " not more " than a certain 



Buildings and Grounds 103 

number of acres; the more recent type, that there shall be 
" not less " than the prescribed area. In Minnesota no 
elementary school shall be built upon a plot of ground that 
affords less than fifty square feet of playground per pupil; 
one hundred square feet will be required when conditions 
make it possible to secure this amount of land. With the 
coming of the consolidated rural school and the growing 
sentiment for playgrounds and school gardens, the tendency 
in nearly all parts of the country has been toward securing 
larger grounds for the schools. In many places the rural 
high school requires an agricultural equipment along with 
a large acreage of land. In the large cities where it is often 
impracticable to have a large plot of land for a school build- 
ing, large amounts of money have been appropriated for 
separate parks and playgrounds. 

Two hundred square feet of ground space per child is 
not too much. The city of London now requires 100 
square feet as the minimum. The grounds should be large 
enough to provide places for the younger children and the 
older ones to play, and there should be room for a garden, 
a lawn, flowers, berry-bearing shrubbery and trees to at- 
tract the birds, bird-boxes, and perhaps a place for pets, 
making the grounds all in all a sort of living museum of 
animal and plant life and providing for the schools real sub- 
ject-matter for study, thus far so generally lacking in all 
our schools whether located in the city or the country. 

Environment of the School. The coming years will 
no doubt show a great improvement in the character of the 
school grounds. They will be ample and well laid out. 
Figure 6 is an illustration of what may be expected in many 
districts. 



I04 Education and the General Welfare 

Care of Grounds. It is hoped that the pupils themselves 
will carry out the plans for beautifying the grounds. Then 
there will be vines for fences and walls, shrubbery for or- 
nament and for hedges, and a few maples and oaks. '' The 
time will doubtless come when every rural school district 
will have a janitor, employed the year round, whose duty 
it will be to care for the school buildings and grounds during 




Figure 6 
Plan of School Grounds ^ 

vacations as well as during the school year." But during 
the months of the school year the grounds will bear witness 
of intelligent care on the part of the pupils. The work be- 
stowed on them will be of educational value ; it will provide 
object lessons in the care of the lawn, shrubbery, and trees 
for the future home-makers of the community. 

In some of the states the environment of the school is 
guarded in various ways. Some permit no industry or busi- 

1 Grounds of the Harlem Consolidated School, Winnebago County, 111. 
Courtesy State Department of Public Instruction, Trenton, N. J. 



Buildings and Grounds 105 

ness that is in any way offensive within certain limits of the 
grounds. Many have prohibited the sale of alcoholic bev- 
erages within certain prescribed distances from a school, in 
one state the dry zone having a radius of four miles. In 
Iowa no bills, posters, or other advertising matter of liquor 
and tobacco shall be distributed, posted, or circulated within 
four hundred feet of premises used for school purposes. 
Minnesota requires that no school site shall be within five 
hundred feet of steam railroads or manufacturing plants 
which may be a source of noise or smoke, swampy places, 
livery stables, or other buildings that may be sources of un- 
healthful conditions. In a few states good drainage is 
specifically required, Minnesota directing in addition that 
made-land or land impregnated with organic matter must 
not be selected.^ 

In regard to the general structure and proportion of parts 
of buildings, lately enacted laws have in a few instances 
come to a just appreciation of the needs of a school. The 
schoolhouse building code of Ohio is believed to be '' the 
most stringent set of regulations concerning the construction 
of schoolhouses which has ever been enacted into law by a 
state legislature." ^ Among its provisions are the follow- 
ing: 

All rooms or buildings appropriated to the use of primary, gram- 
mar, or high schools, including all rooms or buildings used for 
school purposes by pupils or students eighteen years old or less 
require a certain class of construction; all buildings more than 
two stories high shall be of fireproof construction; two stories or 
less of fireproof or composite construction ; under certain condi- 

1 Bulletin No. 21, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 

2 Ayres : " Cleveland Education Survey, School Buildings and Equip- 
ment," 1 916, Russell Sage Foundation, New York. 



io6 Education and the General Welfare 

tions a one-story frame building is permitted provided the same 
is erected thirty feet away from any other building structure or 
lot line, and two hundred feet beyond the city fire limits. 

No school building shall be more than three stories high. 

No building shall occupy more than seventy-five per cent of a 
corner lot nor more than seventy per cent of an interior lot or site. 

The minimum floor space and air space to be allowea per person 
in school and class rooms is as follows: 



Grades 


Square Feet 


Cubic Feet of Air Space 


Primary 


i6 


200 


Grammar 


i8 


225 


High School 


20 


300 



The height of all rooms, except toilet, play and recreation 
rooms shall be not less than half the average width of the rooms, 
and in no case less than ten feet. Other rooms shall be not less 
than eight feet high. 

A rest or hospital room shall be provided in all schools contain- 
ing four and not more than eight rooms. In buildings containing 
more than eight rooms two such rooms shall be provided. 

No assembly hall (which is defined as a room seating more 
than a hundred persons) shall be located above the second story 
in a fireproof building nor above the first story in one of com- 
posite construction. 

Width of Aisles (minimum) 
Primary rooms Grammar rooms High school rooms 
Center aisles — 17 inches 18 20 

Wall aisles — 28 inches 30 36 

Other states do not make varied requirements of space accord- 
ing to the age of the pupils. Seventeen inches is low for the 
width of an aisle. Two hundred feet is the requirement for air 
space in eight states. For manual training and domestic science 
the floor space allowance is as high as thirty-five square feet in 
some of the states. 



Buildings and Grounds 107 

Lighting 

The proportion of glass in each building used for school pur- 
poses shall be not less than one square foot of glass to each five 
square feet of floor area; in toilet and other rooms the proportion 
is as one to ten. 

Windows shall be placed either at the left, or the left and rear 
of the pupils when seated, tops of the windows to be not more 
than eight inches below the ceiling height. 

The unit of measurement for the width of a properly lighted 
room, when lighted from one side only, shall be the height of 
the window head above the floor. The width of all class and 
recitation rooms when lighted from one side only, shall never ex- 
ceed two and a half times this unit measured at right angles to 
the source of light. 

The number of gas burners shall be not less than in the follow- 
ing proportions: 



Rooms 


3-foot burners 


Sq. 


ft. floor space 


Class 


I 




12 


Auditorium 


I 




15 


Gymnasium 


I 




15 


Halls and stairways 


I 




24 



No swinging or movable gas fixture or brackets shall be used. 

In electric lighting all wiring shall be done in conduit. The 

candle power in relation to the floor space shall be not less than: 



Rooms 


Candle power 


Sq. 


ft. floor space 


Class 


I 




2 


Auditorium 


I 




2/2 


Gymnasium 


I 




2/2 


Halls and stairways 


I 




4 



Enclosed stairways, toilet rooms, corridors, passageways, shall 
be lighted by artificial light, and said lights shall be kept burning 
when the building is occupied after dark. 

Means of egress are proportioned in width and number to the 



io8 Education and the General Welfare 

number of persons that can be accommodated in the building. The 
number of stairways and their construction, self-closing doors, 
hand-rails and guard-rails, dimensions of stairways, risers and 
treads for primary, grammar, and other schools, waterproof floors 
for toilet rooms, treads with rubber or lead mats to prevent slip- 
ping, floor and roof loads, dimensions and location of exit doors — 
for all of these there are detailed specifications.^ 

Standard Dimensions of Classrooms. The structural 
unit of the school building being the classroom, there does 
not appear to be any good reason why the units should not 
be of uniform size and dimensions. All classrooms should 
obviously be of such dimensions in the first place as will 
most easily meet the difficulties of heating, lighting, and 
acoustics. The following shows the agreements and dif- 
ferences in three proposed sets of dimensions : ^ 



Height 12, 12, 12^ 

Width 20, 22, 24 

Length 28, 28, 28 

A classroom should not be longer than 28 feet because of 
the difficulty of hearing and seeing for the children who sit 
in the rear. With sufficient window space a twelve-foot 
ceiling is high enough; one of fourteen feet is likely to cause 
echoes and any unnecessary addition to ceiling height en- 
tails a useless waste of heat. A width two and a half times 
the height of the window head above the floor, when the 

1 Ohio School Laws, Columbus, Ohio, 1915. 

2 Cubberley : " School Organization and Administration," World Book 
Co., New York, 1916, p. 233 ; Dresslar : " School Hygiene," The Mac- 
millan Co., New York, 1913, pp. 30-36; Rosenau : "Preventive Medi- 
cine and Hygiene," D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1917, p. 1081. 



Buildings and Grounds 109 

room is lighted from one side only, is too wide, consider- 
ing that the top of the window should not be more than six 
to eight inches from the ceiling. As may be seen from the 
above, the width may be less than twice the height of the 
ceiling. 

In regard to size of classrooms, it is not clear why they 
should be adjusted to the bodily dimensions of the children 
using them. The smaller children need at least as much 
room for freedom of movement and as much air space for 
metabolism as the older ones. In regard to the air space 
provided the third set of dimensions is the most satisfactory 
for all the children. If there must be crowding to accom- 
modate all the children, it should not be resorted to in the 
lower grades, as is usually the case. In a room of standard 
size, desks and seats or tables and chairs should be provided 
for not more than 30 pupils. 

Schoolhouses Must Be Made Safe. Parents should 
have no fears on account of danger from fire. The chil- 
dren should learn how to use fire-extinguishing appliances ; 
more than that, the school should exemplify the principles 
of fire prevention. No closet for storage should be placed 
under any stairway. The Ohio law requires a one and a 
half inch hose of sufficient length to reach any part of the 
building. Where a water supply is not available standard 
chemical fire extinguishers must be provided in the propor- 
tion of one extinguisher to each 2,000 square feet of floor 
area or less. 

It has been estimated that there are now, and have been 
for years past, an average of ten school fires a week. In 
25 years we have burned 34 capitol buildings, 723 court 
houses, and i960 city halls. In 33 years our fire loss has 



no Education and the General Welfare 

mounted to $4,500,000,000.^ Fire caused us in 1912, for 
instance, a per capita loss of $2.55; while in England the 
loss the same year was only .54, in France .84, in Germany 
.20, in Sweden .13, and in Switzerland .04 per capita.^ 

Children Should Be Comfortable. Since it is neces- 
sary to have children maintain a sitting posture for consid- 
erable periods of time when in school, one of the most im- 
portant measures is to furnish the school rooms with suit- 
able desks and seats. There should be none but single seats 
and desks. When a chair or seat is of the proper height 
the thigh and the lower leg will form a right angle with 
each other, the lower leg being in a vertical position with 
the foot resting wholly upon the floor. The seat itself 
should be concave on top so as to avoid sliding forward in 
it. The seat should have a back rest, which should support 
the small of the back only and no other part. 

The distance between the seat and the desk should be such 
that the child will need to lean forward very little to read 
or write, not so much as to relieve wholly the support at 
the small of the back. The top of the desk should be at 
such a height that the arms can rest normally upon it. 
The angle of the slope of the desk should not be more than 
15 degrees. There should be a periodical adjustment of 
desks at th'e beginning of the year and about mid-year.^ 

However, there is so much possibility of discomfort and 
harm in the use of desks for the lower grades that movable 
chairs and tables of proper height are recommended for the 

1 Fitzpatrick : "Building the School," The American School Board 
Journal, Vol. 52, Apr., 1916, p. 16. 

2 " The American City," 1913, Vol. IX, p. 50. 

3 Shaw : " School Hygiene." The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1901, pp. 147-150. 



Buildings and Grounds iii 

children of the first three grades. The change from the 
freedom of ont-door Hfe and the home to the restraints of 
school discipline is at its best so great as to interfere some- 
what with the proper functioning of the vital organs, and 
the demands of muscular control should not be too rigid. 

Blackboards and Other Equipment. Blackboards 
should be of slate. They should never be placed between 
windows. They should not be placed higher from the 
floor than 26 inches in primary and 30 inches in grammar 
rooms. 

For all primary rooms there should be a sand table. 
There should be plenty of objective material for children to 
work and play with, not only books. To keep this material, 
the open desk top is not satisfactory. There should be in- 
dividual lockers built in to the height of the lower edge of 
the blackboard. This will provide a place for each child 
to put away material used for individual work, such as 
colored and writing crayons, scissors, a jar of paste, pencils, 
a box of paints, pen, ink, etc. There should also be a built- 
in cupboard about 15 feet long and of the same height as 
the lockers, where may be stored on shelves the material 
used by the children in common in their group games. ^ 

1 The furnishings for primary rooms approved in the returns to a 
questionnaire sent out by a Committee > of the National Council of 
Primary Education and favorably reported on at the fourth annual 
meeting held in February, 1919, include : 

"Low shelf space measuring 36x18x9 inches, for each child, addi- 
tional shelf space for general materials; work tables and drop leaf 
shelves, two sand trays, 24 x 36 x 6 inches, each on rolling base ; at 
least 96 sq. ft. of swinging display boards, or four leaves approximately 
3 X 4 ft each ; library bookshelves and a good collection of picture 
books, story books, etc. ; materials and tools for construction, including 
building blocks, rubber type, etc.; free floor space at one side of the 



112 Education and the General Welfare 

Besides, every school's equipment should include a book- 
case, a table for the larger reference books, waste-baskets, 
an eight-day clock, a thermometer, and a musical instrument. 
If a piano is beyond the reach of the school's resources, a 
mechanical player may be provided with little expense. 
Many schools now also find it possible to add a moving pic- 
ture machine to their equipment as an aid to instruction and 
for entertainment. 

In some of the states the board of education is required 
by law to procure a United States flag, a flagstaff, and the 
appliances for them for each school district. When the 
schoolhouse is small, a flagstaff on the front of the build- 
ing is regarded as a satisfactory substitute for a flagpole 
placed on the grounds. 

The Chief School Attractions Not Material. But the 
chief joy of school life for normal children is not in 
buildings and grounds and things to play with, but in their 
association with one another. All children are interested 
in others of their own age. When the numbers are small, 
the school is not of compelling interest. In some of the 
states a school with an average attendance of less than ten 
may be suspended by the board of education. When the 
numbers are sufficiently large to make the school interesting 
to all, mere association in work and play will bring to the 
children some of the most valuable lessons of life and in 
the most impressive way. 

room for constructed projects; window boxes for plants and bulbs; 
convenient toilet and lavatory well supplied with soap and towels. 
The vote for movable furniture was unanimous, the only variation 
being that teachers generally voted for tables and chairs while admin- 
istrative officers suggested chair-desks." 



Buildings and Grounds 113 

The buildings, grounds, and equipment might be the best 
that one could imagine; however, without a favorable per- 
sonality in the teacher, they would all be empty nothings. 
This is a matter of greater importance the lower we go in 
the grades. When the child first ventures to school, the 
kind of personality that greets him is the most important 
first influence. As the pupil grows in knowledge and ad- 
vances in the grades, more and more should the subject- 
matter be the chief consideration. Finally, in the graduate 
school it is the matter of sole importance. 

If, therefore, there is any difference in school buildings 
and their surroundings, the better and more attractive ones 
should be assigned to the younger children upon whom their 
formative influence will have the greatest effect. And in 
the selection of teachers, personal qualities should be given 
greater weight in the elementary school than in any school 
of higher grade. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Fresh Air 

Statutory Requirements for Heating.^ A standard re- 
quirement for the heating of school buildings is a system 
that will heat all corridors, hallways, playrooms, toilet 
rooms, recreation rooms, gymnasiums, assembly rooms, and 
manual training rooms to a uniform temperature of 65° 
in zero weather, and will heat uniformly all other parts of 
the building to 70° in zero weather. Rooms with one or 
more sides used for open air or outdoor treatment are ex- 
cepted. 

The heating system is to be combined with a system of 
ventilation which will change the air in all parts of the 
building except the corridors, halls, and storage closets not 
less than six times per hour. Wardrobes not separated 
from the classrooms should be considered a part of the class- 
room with vent register placed in the wardrobe. The bot- 
tom of warm air registers must be not less than eight feet 
above the floor line; the vent registers not more than two 
inches above the floor line. 

The fresh air supply must be taken from the outside of 
the building, and vitiated air must not be reheated. The 
vitiated air is conducted through flues .or ducts and dis- 
charged above the roof of the building. 

1 Ohio School Laws, 1915. 

114 



Fresh Air 115 

A hood must be placed over every stove in the domestic 
science room, over every compartment desk or demonstra- 
tion table in the chemical laboratories and chemical labora- 
tory lecture rooms, of such size as to receive and carry off 
all offensive odors, fumes, and gases. The ducts from these 
hoods must be connected to vertical ventilating flues placed 
in the walls and independent of the room ventilation. To 
create a sufficient draft to carry away these fumes and of- 
fensive odors, electric exhaust fans are placed in the ducts 
or flues from the stove fixtures in these rooms ; in case elec- 
tric current is not available and a steam or hot-water system 
is used, the vertical flues are provided with accelerating coils 
of proper size. 

In a one-room schoolhouse as found in the rural districts, the 
standard heating and ventilating system consists of any style or 
design of heating stove enclosed in a jacket made of galvanized 
or black iron. The jacket extends from the stove tray to a point 
four inches above the top of the stove. 

Fresh air must be taken from the outside of the building and 
carried to the stove below the floor line either in vitrified sewer 
pipe, masonry ducts, or ducts made of wrought iron or steel of 
not less than three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, riveted 
together with tight joints. The ducts must be turned up and 
discharged under the center of the stove, from which the air is 
to ascend between the radiating surface of the stove and the 
jacket, and enter the room from the top of the stove. 

The stove is to be placed on a cast-iron tray raised three inches 
above the floor line, of the same size as the enclosing jacket, 
provided with an opening of proper size to receive the fresh air 
duct and projecting beyond the stove door one foot in all direc- 
tions. The stove must be provided with a metal collar extending 
from the face of the stove to the face of the jacket. 

No stove pipe connection between the stove and the smoke flue 
can be more than 5 feet long measured horizontally. Each room 



ii6 Education and the General Welfare 

in which a standard ventilating stove is installed must be pro- 
vided v^ith a ventilating flue about 12 inches square, placed close 
to the stove. The vent flue may be of the same area, preferably 
however about sixteen inches square if that of the fresh air sup- 
ply is 12, and this must be run through and above the roof. 

Vent flues of not more than 150 square inches of area must be 
enclosed with walls of brick or concrete not less than 4 inches 
thick, and when of larger area with walls of brick not less than 
8 inches thick. 

Three Definite Requirements. These are among the 
provisions of the building code of Ohio. As in other states 
the statute on heating and ventilation makes three definite 
requirements : uniformity of temperature in all parts of a 
room, a uniform minimum degree of temperature, and a 
change of air six times an hour. The first two prevent sud- 
den changes in temperature and the third aims to prevent 
an accumulation of poisonous gases. The purpose of uni- 
formity of temperature is to guard against drafts, and the 
provision for a change of air is to prevent the rebreathing 
of expired air supposed to be vitiated by too large a per- 
centage of carbon dioxide. 

Factors of Ventilation. Recent investigations and ex- 
periments have thrown much doubt on the correctness of 
public opinion on what constitutes good air. There are 
five factors involved in ventilation : 

1. Temperature 

2. Air movement 

3. Humidity 

4. Proportions of oxygen and carbon dioxide 

5. Dust, bacteria, and noxious gases. 

Air movement depends on temperature, the presence of 
humidity increases the positive effect of extremes of tem- 



Fresh Air 117 

perature, and the fourth and fifth factors relate to the 
purity and the cleanness of the air. 

Principal Constituents of Atmospheric Air : ^ 

Volumes Function 

Per cent. 

Nitrogen 78.09/ ^^ ^^^"^^ ^^^ oxygen so as to regulate the 

L rate of combustion and respiration. 

Oxygen 20.94 To sustain life. 

Carbon dioxide 0.03 To regulate the action of the heart, give 

tonus to the blood, and stimulate the 
respiratory nerve centers. 

Argon 0.94 

Other gases trace 

Water vapor 

The Oxygen Content of the Air. The oxygen of the 
atmosphere may drop to 17 per cent or rise to 50 per cent 
or even higher without producing any notable effects in the 
vital functions. When the supply is reduced to 11 or 12 
per cent the condition becomes dangerous ; when it falls as 
low as 7.2 per cent death results. However, in the closest 
crowded halls the oxygen content never falls below 20 per 
cent.^ 

Moderate changes in the oxygen content of the outer 
air or of the air in the lungs have no effect on the amount 
of oxygen used up in the process of respiration. Normally 
the air of the lungs has a 16 per cent oxygen content. It 
may fall as much as 4 per cent without in the least changing 
the amount of the oxygen that is taken up by the blood. 
The amount absorbed depends upon the need of the cells 

1 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," D. Appleton, New 
York, 1917. 

2 Ihid. : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene." Op. cit., p. 66^. 



ii8 Education and the General Welfare 

rather than on the quantity available. It is carried in the 
blood by means of the hemoglobin of the red corpuscles and 
discharged to the cells that are '' hungry " for it. It is 
only energy spent in physical or mental work that puts cells 
in a condition for the reception of oxygen. However, the 
supply of oxygen in the air of the lungs is always sufficient 
for all purposes. 

Purity of the atmosphere, therefore, is not proportional 
to the amount of oxygen there is in it, as has been com- 
monly supposed. In the higher altitudes where the air is 
described as fresh and invigorating the oxygen content is 
not so great as in the lower altitudes. 

Difference in composition between inspired and expired 
air is as follows : 

O N CO2 

Inspired air 20.81 79-15 -03 

Expired air 16.033 79-557 4-38 

This shows that the chief result of breathing is an in- 
crease of carbon dioxide and a decrease of oxygen. But 
the proportions of the two gases present in the expired 
breath are not such as to be in the least harmful. If car- 
bon dioxide were a poison at 4.38 per cent in expiration, it 
would probably injure the. mucous membrane of the air 
ducts on its way out. We drink it in beverages and it may 
be inhaled without noticeable effects. Normally the alve- 
olar air in the lungs is 5.6 per cent of CO^^ In workshops 
and in places where people are crowded close together the 
carbon dioxide content may rise to twenty-four times the 
normal proportions without harmful results. 

^Haldane: "Organism and Environment — Breathing," Yale Univ. 
Press, New Haven, Conn., 1917, p. 8. 



Fresh Air 119 

Recent Experiments. Paul's experiments showed that 
healthy persons could be shut up in an air-tight cabinet and 
kept comfortable as long as four hours and until the carbon 
dioxid rose to 50 times the normal amount in the atmos- 
phere, so long as the temperature and the moisture were 
kept low. When the temperature was raised to 80° with 
moderate humidity and when as low as 70° with high 
humidity, practically all in the cabinet at once began to 
suffer from depression, headache, dizziness, or a tendency 
to nausea. This condition, it was found, could be relieved 
by lowering the temperature, or by drying the air, or by 
putting it in rapid motion with a fan attached to the inside 
of the cabinet. These results were confirmed by three other 
investigations.^ 

Harmful Gases. Carbon dioxide may be an index of 
the amount of rebreathed air and thus an index of the 
thoroughness of air circulation in any room. But air is 
made impure not by the gases which enter into it but by 
those foreign to it which take its place and are injurious 
to the respiratory organs. Of all of these the most dan- 
gerous is carbon monoxide. This may come from leaks in 
gas pipes and fixtures, from spent gases from automobiles, 
from premature closing of dampers of stoves and furnaces, 
and other sources. Air containing 0.4 per cent of this gas 
may be fatal in an hour's time. 

Clean Air. The air is clean when it is free from dust 
and bacteria. This is only relatively true, for dust and to a 
certain extent bacteria are a normal and, at least as far as 
dust is concerned, an indispensable condition of the atmos- 

1 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. 685. 
Hill, L. : " Stuffy Rooms," Pop. Sci. Mo. 1912, p. 390. 



120 Education and the General Welfare 

phere. We are told that without dust there would be no 
rain, no clouds, no mist, and perhaps no light, because 
there would be no means of light reflection and dispersion. 
Dust becomes injurious when excessive amounts of it from 
inorganic sources irritate the mucous membrane of the 
mouth, nose, and throat, and prepare the way for infection 
through the harmful bacteria which may be attached to the 
dust particles of organic or other origin. 

There is more dust in the air inside houses than outside 
as a rule; there is more dust in the city air than in that of 
the open country. In the open country, too, any noxious 
gases or high concentration of carbon dioxide that might 
be present would be dispersed at once in the free air. When 
from the standpoint of purity and cleanness of air, there- 
fore, we judge the kind of air that should be supplied to 
any room, a matter of first importance before that of a 
ventilating system, we should say that the air taken in 
should, as far as possible, be as pure and free from dust 
as that of the open country. 

Humidity. Absolute humidity is the weight of water 
vapor per unit of air. Relative humidity is the ratio of the 
amount of water vapor in the atmosphere to the amount 
it could hold at the temperature in question if saturated. 
Roughly every 27° F increase of temperature doubles the 
amount of water vapor the air can hold in proportion to 
its weight; 32° can hold one one hundred and sixtieth of 
its weight of water vapor, 59° one eightieth, 86° one 
fortieth. The important thing is not how much water 
vapor there is but how much more a unit weight of air 
can hold. It is this that has an effect on the heat regulat- 
ing mechanism of the body. 



Fresh Air 121 

Food and Body Heat. The purpose of this mechanism 
is to keep the body temperature relatively constant in all 
the variations of external temperature. Eighty per cent 
of the heat generated by the food we eat goes to sustain 
this body temperature. A lowering temperature stimulates 
the appetite for food and increases metabolism in answer 
to the increased demand for heat. Children who are under- 
fed and the aged with feeble powers, need to be warmly 
clothed to compensate for the lack of heat energy produced. 
But under ordinary circumstances more heat is produced 
in the body than is needed, especially in seasons of increas- 
ing external temperature. 

Excess of Body Heat. The excess of body heat is 
transferred to the surrounding air by radiation, evapora- 
tion, and in other ways. The more the surrounding tem- 
perature rises the less heat is transferred from the body. 
When it rises to about 70° or above, the regulating mechan- 
ism brings about the secretion of perspiration for an added 
means of transfer by evaporation. This can take place 
rapidly only when the humidity is low ; that is, when a large 
amount of moisture can still be taken up by the surrounding 
air. When the humidity is high, this avenue of escape of 
the body heat is largely shut off. The next step the vaso- 
motor mechanism takes is to send blood to the skin as shown 
by the flushed face. This causes the temperature to rise 
on the surface, whence it is again transferred in additional 
measure to the surrounding air by means other than evap- 
oration. All the means of transfer now operate together, 
when the temperature and the humidity are both high, but 
with increasing difficulty as they mount higher. When the 
temperature rises to 85° with high humidity, the body tern- 



122 Education and the General Welfare 

perature begins to go above the constant point of 98%° ; 
that is, the vaso-motor regulating mechanism is no longer 
equal to its task. 

Air Movement. But in all this we have not considered 
the possible intervention of air movements. In the cabinet 
experiment, when the temperature, the humidity, and the 
carbon dioxide content were high, and the oxygen content 
was low, relief came at once to the inmates when an elec- 
tric fan attached to the inside of the cabinet was set in 
motion. It is believed that in still air, whether inside or 
outdoors, an aerial envelope is formed close to the body. 
This prevents heat transference beyond the envelope, and 
when the body is also still as in a crowded assemblage in- 
doors, the feeling of lassitude, dizziness, fainting, and other 
manifestations of illness reveal the not unfamihar symp- 
toms of '' crowd-poisoning." The same thing in aggra- 
vated form accounts for the tragedy of the Black Hole of 
Calcutta. This was a military prison, 18 feet square and 
with only two windows on one side for ventilation, into 
which 176 adults were put at 8 p. m. Some of the inmates 
died within an hour and in the morning only 23 were found 
alive. 

"The air which surrounds the body has two principal functions: 
a chemical and a physical. It oxygenates the blood and removes 
the body heat. For the performance of its chemical function it 
must contain a sufficient amount of oxygen to keep the hemoglobin 
saturated and be free from poisonous gases; for the performance 
of its physical function it must be cool enough to absorb the heat 
of the body, dry enough to take up moisture from the skin, and 
have motion enough to carry away the aerial envelope to which 
this heat and moisture are transmitted. If the air of the room is 
not renewed its oxygen is gradually consumed and it becomes 



Fresh Air 123 

laden with heat and moisture from the bodies of the occupants. 
In this way it may finally become unable to perform either of its 
principal functions. A constant supply of fresh air is therefore 
necessary. But careful experiment has demonstrated that under 
all ordinary circumstances the fault develops on the physical side 
so far in advance of the chemical that the latter may be practically 
left out of consideration. Relatively small amounts of fresh air 
will always supply the chemical needs of the body; large amounts 
may be necessary to supply the physical demands. Granted that 
the small amount of air necessary for the demands of respiration 
is supplied, the control of its physical properties becomes the great 
problem of ventilation; and of these physical properties tempera- 
ture is vastly the most important. The success of ventilation de- 
pends far more on supplying conditions suited to the outside of 
the body than to the inside of the lungs." ^ 

Importance of Changing Rate of Temperature Stimu- 
lation. Air movement is artificially produced by the whirl- 
ing motion of a fan ; naturally, it is due to changes in tem- 
perature. In the schoolroom the heating engineer has pro- 
duced a very perfect system of ventilation, maintaining a 
uniform temperature and changing the air content a desired 
number of times; but he has produced new conditions that 
have existed nowhere under the sun. His system is arti- 
ficially perfect and perfectly artificial, as no such thing ex- 
ists in nature anywhere except in languid tropical latitudes. 
Life itself is adverse to uniformity. Variety of stimulation 
animates, monotony deadens. There is not one sense or- 
gan, but many. And each one of them requires a changing 
rate of stimulation to keep it responsive. The skin is an 
organ of sense extending over a large area. The tempera- 

1 Crowder, T. R. : '* The Ventilation of Sleeping Cars," Trans. Ameri- 
can Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers. Vol. XXI, 1915, 
p. 274. 



124 Education and the General Welfare 

ture sense is exposed over this area and is constituted of 
" cold spots " and " hot spots " which function separately 
when separately stimulated by artificial means under lab- 
oratory conditions. The mechanism which responds to 
changes of temperature is kept alive and active by a variety 
of cold and warm stimuli. Hot and cold plunges are 
needed for some children to stimulate breathing immedi- 
ately after birth. 

Habituation of the body mechanism to a uniform tem- 
perature is unfavorable to health and well-being, especially 
if the temperature is high. For many thousand years the 
human race has become adapted to outdoor life and a wide 
range of temperature stimulation such as exists in the north 
temperate zone, a latitude of optimum conditions for men- 
tal and physical activity and the fruits of civilization.^ The 
outdoor temperature varies, the outdoor humidity varies ; in 
our homes and schools we would make each uniform. 

Not only is there a latitude of temperature stimulation, 
but there is evidence to show that seasonal changes during 
the year that afford a wide range of stimulation are the 
most favorable for work. Also, the part of the day of 
twenty-four hours in which occurs the greatest range of 
variation in temperature is the time when people as a rule 
prefer to do their work. That is, the time of the most ac- 
tive peripheral stimulation of the temperature sense is the 
period of optimum vital functioning, of general well-being, 
and an inclination to work. 

The Outside Temperature. In the temperature records 
of the Cincinnati station of the U. S. Weather Bureau, 

1 Huntington : " Civilization and Climate," New Haven, Yale Uni- 
versity Press, 1915, p. 119 ff. 



Fresh Air 



125 



of the year beginning July i, 1916, to June 30, 191 7, it 
appears that the hours of the day that show most frequently 
the greatest range of variation for the day occur in the 
forenoon, beginning roughly at six in the summer and at 
nine in the winter months. In this year there were single 

CHART XII 



Curve showing mean hourly range of temperature during the day, 
covering a period of twenty-one years, 1890-1910. From the records of 
the U. S. Weather Bureau, Cincinnati, O. 



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10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 

P.M. 
Hours of the day 



126 Education and the General Welfare 

hours that showed a range of from 8° to 20"^. While in 
our homes, offices, and schoolrooms we live in a uniform 
tropical temperature in a still atmosphere, healthful open 
air conditions would give us temperature variations as great 
as from 8° to 20° in an hour. An investigation on the 
basis of records of mean hourly temperature taken at the 
same station and covering a period of twenty-one years, 
1890^1910, confirms the general principle that the hours of 
greatest range of temperature coincide with what are usu- 
ally considered the best working hours of the day. 

Explanation of the Curve. The curve gives in graphic 
form the hourly temperature conditions for a period of 
twenty-one years. It was derived by taking the mean 
hourly temperature as reported by the U. S. Weather Bu- 
reau at Cincinnati for the months of the given years (1890— 
1 910), then comparing each hourly mean with that of the 
succeeding hour of the twenty- four and noting the differ- 
ence, and finally taking the mean of the difference for the 
twelve months. Fractions of a half and below were disre- 
garded. 

The results show that there are two zvaves of instability 
of temperature; the greater from about the seventh hour to 
the second in the afternoon, the lesser from the sixth in 
the afternoon to the tenth in the evening. The normal 
conditions of the outside atmosphere provide constant va- 
riations of temperature in temperate climates and hence a 
constant natural movement of air. This air movement is 
greatest at that period of the day which from time out of 
mind the race has chosen for maximum activity. This 
seems to fix a standard in a general way which ventilation 
of workshops and schoolrooms should approximate. At 



Fresh Air 



127 



least an air movement at the rate of 2 feet per second should 
be maintained in every room. Expert authority now rec- 
ommends a greater range of temperature than formerly. 
The limits of the temperature of schoolrooms have been 
placed as low as 60 to 68°. It is held that the lower tem- 



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Figure 7 
Effects of Location of Inlets and Outlets in a Room ^ 

peratures will usually provide the most satisfactory condi- 
tions of humidity. 

Importance of Moving Air, on which the chief stress 
is now laid, serves to scatter the expired air which in still 
places is largely reinhaled, to disperse the stagnant and 
*' dead air " spaces which can be found in almost any room, 

1 Shaw : " School Hygiene," op. cit., 82-83. 



128 Education and the General Welfare 

especially when inlets and outlets are incorrectly located as 
in five of the examples in Figure 7 (page 127). A thor- 
ough circulation serves to eliminate odors, to disperse con- 
centrations of gases, and to break up the envelope of air 
that forms around the bodies in still places and negatives 
almost every good effect of ventilation. To accustom the 
body to currents of air with varying temperature is probably 
a factor in producing immunity from colds. 

Heating Systems. Heating systems are founded on the 
principles involved in natural ventilation. They operate 
regularly and uniformly while the natural atmosphere is 
subject to constant and often great variation. The paral- 
lel between natural and artificial ventilation is here indi- 
cated : 

Causes of Natural Ventilation ArtHicial Systems 

1. Changes of temperature i. All heating methods have 

cause the air to move : this effect until the tem- 

warm air rises, cold air perature becomes uniform, 
falls. 

2. Air blows into a room from 2. The plenum system does this 

the outside. in a mechanical way. 

3. Air is sucked out by passing 3. The vacuum system does this 

currents of air. in a mechanical way. 

4. A combination of 2 and 3. 

Methods of Heating, and Humidity. Hot-air, hot- 
water, and steam heat, all have a ventilating as well as a 
heating effect; the objection to all, especially the first, is 
that they produce an atmosphere in a room that is charac- 
terized by a lack of humidity. As the temperature rises in 
such a room the humidity falls. To relieve this condition 
it is recommended that large wide pans of water be ex- 



Fresh Air 129 

posed to the atmosphere so that the dryness may be counter- 
acted by evaporation. According to a calculation made by 
IngersoU ^ a house containing 17,000 cu. ft. of space would 
require, for a relative humidity of 40 per cent at 70° F. in 
the air already containing 20 per cent humidity and changed 
once an hour, about 15 gallons of water a day. A school- 
room of standard dimensions, say 8400 cu. ft. (p. 108) 
would on the same basis require about five and a half gal- 
lons a day, if the air were changed once an hour or six 
times while the school is in session. But the standard 
school requirement is six changes per hour. We can see 
that the use of water pans would be inconvenient and the 
supply of water vapor would be inadequate, especially as 
by such a method the water does not readily vaporize. A 
better method to increase humidity is by means of properly 
muffled jets of steam introduced into the plenum or fan 
chambers from the boiler supply. That humidity in school- 
rooms may go so low as to be a menace to health is un- 
questioned, even though recent experiments seem to show 
that the mental efficiency of adults is not impaired by a rel- 
atively low humidity.^ " An out-of-door air in winter at 
a temperature of 0° F. with a relative humidity of 50 
per cent when heated to 70° will have a relative humidity 
of only 3 per cent. This is drier than the air of the driest 
climate known, which is seldom less than 30 per cent. It is 
not unusual for the excessively dry air of a furnace-heated 
house to cause the wood-work to shrink and fall apart, the 

1 Quoted by Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. 

765- 

2 Stecher : " The Effect of Humidity," Archives of Psychology, No. 
38, December, 1916. 



130 Education and the General Welfare 

binding of books to crack, etc. Living in such an atmo- 
sphere is not normal and must be harmful." ^ 

Causes of Lowered Resistance to Colds. The unnat- 
ural high temperature of houses and schoolrooms, it has 
been found, imparts a predisposition to infections of the 
nose and throat. In the course of the investigations carried 
on by the New York Commission on Ventilation covering 
the reaction to heat and cold of nearly 150 male subjects 
under observation, " It was found that heat ordinarily causes 
a swelling of the inferior turbinates of the nose, tending to 
diminish the size of the breathing space, increased secretion, 
and reddening of the membranes. The action of cold, as a 
rule, is just the opposite, namely a reduction in the size of the 
inferior turbinates, a diminution of secretion and color of 
the membranes. In the industrial workers, whose occupa- 
tion involved continued exposure to extremes of heat and 
cold, these typical changes were not followed." ^ 

In the same investigation, it was found too that over- 
heating diminished the power of resistance to infection. 

There is now considerable evidence to show that a low- 
ered power of resistance to colds and other ills is due to 
too much clothing and to a temperature too much above 
68° F. in our apartments and schoolhouses. In uniform 
conditions of a high temperature, the sense-organ of tem- 
perature, the skin, along with the heat-regulating mechan- 
ism of which it forms a part, becomes debilitated through 
lack of varied stimulation. It gains so little experience with 

1 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene." op. cit., p. 765. 

- Palmer : " An Outline of the Activities of the N. Y. Comm. on Ven- 
tilation," Transactions American Soc. Heating and Ventilating Engi- 
neers, 1916, Vol. XXH, p. 355. 



Fresh Air 131 

the sensations of cold that when a chilling draft passes over 
it, its power of vigorous and healthy response is to a large 
extent lost. Those persons who can enjoy a draft of cold 
air as it meets them before an open window, have usually 
no fear of '' catching cold." 

Open Window Ventilation. Under the simplest con- 
ditions, open windows are the best and most efficient means 
of ventilation. The windows of a schoolroom should fre- 
quently be opened during the day from the bottom so that 
the air can rush in with perceptible movement. The win- 
dows may be lowered from the top or from the bottom with 
the use of window boards, if a continuous but imperceptible 
ingress of air is desired. However, this is not sufficient 
for ventilation of the room. The air must occasionally be 
let in so that its freshness is felt on the body by every pupil 
in the room. 

By this method the best air circulation that can be had is 
brought into the room with a stimulating variation of tem- 
perature and humidity. Stale air, like stagnant water, may 
not be actually poisonous, but it is not satisfying unless 
taken fresh and flowing. Systems of heating and ventila- 
tion which are thrown out of order if a window is opened 
" when the fan is running " have seldom proved satisfactory 
to any one but the janitor. Large buildings must obviously 
continue to be heated by some artificial system ; the near fu- 
ture promises marked improvement in this field, upon the 
details of which only expert engineers are qualified to speak 
at present. 

Standard Atmospheric Conditions in a Schoolroom. 
By way of summary, the various factors that belong to ven- 
tilation of schoolrooms is a certain content of air-supply per 



132 Education and the General Welfare 

pupil, a certain limited range of temperature, not an exces- 
sive amount of dust or bacteria, a certain humidity, and an 
almost perceptible continuous air movement. The follow- 
ing has been offered as an acceptable standard of atmo- 
spheric conditions in a schoolroom : 

Air supply 30 cu. ft. per minute (minimum) 

CO2 content 8 parts in 10,000 parts of air (maximum) 

Temperature 68° Fahr. (maximum) 

Relative humidity 42 per cent, (minimum) 

Dust count 100,000 particles per cubic centimeter 

(maximum) 

Bacteria 12 colonies on a three-minute plate (maxi- 

mum) 

Air movement 2 feet per second ^ 

Open Air Conditions. The open air school was first 
introduced to provide for the instruction of anaemic and 
tuberculous children, who could not thrive under the ordi- 
nary conditions of schoolroom ventilation. In the United- 
States the movement began in 1908. By 19 12 the plan had 
been adopted in forty-four cities, in which the vacant space 
on the roofs of large school buildings was at first utilized 
for the purpose. The children require suitable clothing cut 
so that it can be worn over their other clothing and adjusted 
to individual size. Hoods are provided to be fastened to 
the collar and to be worn over the head in the coldest 
weather. The feet are covered with boots of heavy felt. 

The results of the open air school have been so satis- 
factory not only in the gain made by the pupils in weight and 

1 Hill : " Transactions American Society Heating and Ventilating 
Engineers," 1916, Vol. XH, p. 395. For methods and devices employed 
in making tests see Report of the Chicago Commission on Ventilation, 
Chicago, 1915, pp. 70-99- 



Fresh Air 133 

health but also in the advancement shown in their studies, 
that the plans for new school buildings in the larger cities 
are now usually made to include one or more open-air class- 
rooms. 

Effect of Different Types of Ventilation on the 
Health of Normal School Children. There seems to be 
no valid reason for not providing the most healthful air 
conditions for all pupils, especially when it also results in a 
saving of fuel and other items of expense. In order to ob- 
tain definite data of the effects of the open-window type of 
ventilation and the mechanical type with closed rooms, the 
Bureau of Child Hygiene of the Department of Health of 
New York City began in February, 19 16, an inquiry into the 
possible relationship between the prevalence of respiratory 
diseases among school children and classroom ventilation. 
The study was made in cooperation with the New York 
State Commission on Ventilation, which had full control of 
the selection of classrooms with reference to the type of 
ventilation to be included. 

The inquiry consisted of two complete studies. The first 
period of observation lasted from February 19, 19 16, to 
April 8, 1 91 6. The second study began with the advent of 
cold weather and covered the period from November 4, 
19 16, to January 2^, 191 7. Three types of ventilation 
formed the basis of the study : Type A — '' so-called cold, 
open-window classrooms, ventilated by natural means," 
with a temperature range of 50° to 60° F. " and occasion- 
ally higher " ; Type B — with ventilation wholly by open 
windows, with a temperature range of 60° to 70°, averag- 
ing 68° F. ; Type C — temperature range the same as Type 
B, averaging 68° degrees, with ventilation of classrooms 



134 Education and the General Welfare 

by the plenum fan system installed in the buildings, the 
windows in these classrooms being kept closed. 

There were 5,543 children, enrolled in grades 2B to 6A, 
eighty-six per cent between eight and eleven years of age, 
and '' ranging in social status from the well-to-do who live 
in comfortable homes, in sanitary surroundings, to the ex- 
tremely poor, shiftless, and ignorant type, where the chil- 
dren receive no home supervision or hygienic care." 

The conclusions are as follows : 

" In the closed-window mechanically ventilated type of classroom 
kept at a temperature of about 68 degrees F., the rate of absences 
from respiratory diseases was 32 per cent higher than in the 
open-window, naturally ventilated type of classroom kept at the 
same temperature (about 68 degrees F.) and about 40 per cent 
higher than in the open-window, naturally ventilated type of 
classroom kept at a temperature of about 50 degrees F. 

" In the closed-window, mechanically ventilated typ-e of class- 
room, kept at a temperature of about 68 degrees F. the rate of 
respiratory disea'ses occurring among pupils in attendance was 98 
per cent higher than in the open-window, naturally ventilated 
type of classroom kept at the same temperature (about 68 de- 
grees) and about 70 per cent higher than in the open-window, 
naturally ventilated classroom, kept at a temperature of about 
50 degrees. 

'' It was found that the relative humidity of classrooms, whether 
ventilated by natural or mechanical means, was not a causative 
factor in the occurrence of respiratory illness among the school 
children." ^ 

1 Baker : " Classroom Ventilation and Respiratory Diseases Among 
School Children," Department of Public Health of the City of New 
York, Reprint Series, No. 68, February, 1918, 10 p. 



CHAPTER IX 
Sanitation and School Housekeeping 

Housekeeping in the school should follow the usages in 
the best regulated homes in the district, or better, it should 
be an example of the best to be had anywhere. At least, it 
should present to none of the children lower ideals than 
they have at home. In the matter of order, cleanness, care 
of property, thrift, and economy of supplies, the school 
should teach chiefly by example. The visible evidence of 
good housekeeping wins the immediate and certain approval 
of all who come to form an estimate of the school. Lack 
of it excites disrespect in the pupil for his own school and 
creates an impression in the casual visitor that other signs of 
excellence will not overcome. 

Where Sanitation Begins. The sanitation of a school- 
house begins on the grounds. The conditions for it must be 
provided before the teacher's responsibility begins. The 
grounds should be sufficiently large to allow a free circula- 
tion about the building of the best air to be had, and they 
should be far enough away from tall buildings to allow 
free access to the rays of the sun. Orientation of the build- 
ing should be north and south so that the rooms may be 
on the east or the west for either the morning or the after- 
noon sun. Trees should not be planted near the building 
for they will in time keep out the sun. There should be 

135 



136 Education and the General Welfare 

no dark and unusable corners in the building. The grounds 
should also be well-drained, for muddy yards will make 
dusty rooms. Under certain conditions metallic door-mats 
should be provided and shoe-scrapers for cleaning shoes 
before entering the rooms. 

Ventilation and Sanitation. Ventilation is a part of 
sanitation in that a building that is not well ventilated can- 
not be sanitary. Means of sanitation such as sweeping and 
cleaning a room are also necessary to good ventilation, for 
if the air is full of dust and filthy odors the ventilation it- 
self, however good, cannot be satisfactory. Interior con- 
struction and furnishings should guard against dust- 
catchers. The wood-work should be smooth with corners 
beveled, and there should be no portieres, curtains, decora- 
tive festoons, or other dust receptacles. 

Drinking-Water. In 1909 only one state, Kansas, pro- 
hibited the common drinking cup in school buildings. In 
the course of six years twenty other states had followed 
the example. Ohio requires one drinking fountain and one 
sink to every 6,000 square feet of floor space or fraction 
thereof. Where a water supply and sewerage system are 
not available, pumps must be provided and a gutter or drain 
cf concrete or sewer pipe must be constructed to carry all 
waste water to a distance of 20 feet before discharging it. 
A driven or tubular well should be provided in preference 
to a dug or shallow well. 

Toilet Accommodations. The toilet accommodations 
should be ample, sanitary, and so disposed as to insure pri- 
vacy. Statute requirements are such as have been the 
standard for many years among experts in sanitation. 
They are as follows : one closet to each fifteen female pupils 



Sanitation and School Housekeeping 12^7 

or less and one closet to each twenty-five male pupils or 
less. The same proportion holds whether the toilet rooms 
are inside or outside the building. Outdoor closets must 
not be placed nearer than fifty feet from the school build- 
ing, and there must be widely separated buildings for males 
and females. They should be placed in the farthest op- 
posite corners of the lot and the entrances must be screened 
to secure privacy. 

Nuisances. In most states the local districts control mat- 
ters of this kind and in many cases control it so badly that 
the conditions of the schoolhouse and grounds are a by- 
word and a reproach. In many rural districts of some of 
the states there are, according to reports, no toilet accom- 
modations of any kind. In other instances when they do 
exist they constitute nuisances which common decency 
should put a stop to. In about tvv^elve states the boards 
of health control the sanitation of all public buildings to 
some degree, including school buildings. In Ohio : 

*' The state board of health shall abate all nuisances and 
may remove or correct all conditions detrimental to health or 
well-being found upon school property by serving an order 
on the board of education, school board, or other person re- 
sponsible for such property, for the abatement of such nui- 
sance or condition within a reasonable but fixed time. A 
person failing to comply with such order, unless good or suf- 
ficient reason therefor is shown, shall be fined not to exceed 
one hundred dollars. The board may appoint such number 
of inspectors of schools and school buildings as it deems 
necessary to properly carry out these provisions." ^ 

Keeping the Floors Clean. In one of the states all 

1 School Laws of Ohio, 1915, p. 187. 



138 Education and the General Welfare 

floors except hardwood or tile must be oiled twice a year, 
and three times if the school is in session for nine months. 
Another requires that floors be treated with some antiseptic 
dressing approved by the state as often as may be needed 
to keep down the dust, and they are to be scrubbed before 
each treatment. Statute requirements in regard to clean- 
ing the floors are usually low, a few states providing that 
all schoolhouses shall be cleaned and disinfected before the 
opening of each school year. Certain states require that 
chalk dust shall be removed daily, floors shall be swept 
daily after dismissal, and windows thrown open to air the 
room. Dusting is recommended after the dust is settled, 
perhaps not until morning, all desks, wainscoting, window 
sills, and blackboards to be wiped with an oiled cloth ; some 
states require a disinfectant solution. Dry sweeping is ex- 
pressly forbidden in some of the states, the best practice 
requiring preparation of the floor with sawdust saturated 
with a disinfectant solution. Since 1913 one of the states 
requires a vacuum cleaner for each school.^ 

Cleaning Standards. A questionnaire investigation 
made by the Russell Sage Foundation in 191 1 brought out 
the cleaning standards of American cities. Of 758 cities 
reporting, in one the Uoors were washed daily, in 36 weekly, 
in 135 monthly, in 57 once a year, in 44 never; in 574 of 
the cities the floors zvere swept daily, in 6 weekly, in 2 
monthly, in 10 as needed; in i city the zvindozvs were 
washed daily, in 22 weekly, in 117 monthly, in 31 once a 
year, in 139 as needed, in 5 never. 

In one of the states the board of health has set the fol- 
lowing standard for sweeping and washing floors : 
1 Bulletin No. 21, 1915, U. S. Bureau of Education. 



Sanitation and School Housekeeping 139 

" All floors must be thoroughly swept, or cleaned, each day, 
either after the close of the school in the afternoon, or one hour 
before the opening of the school in the morning. Before sweep- 
ing is started the floors must be sprinkled with moist sawdust or 
other substance so as to prevent the raising of dust. (The floors 
in all schoolrooms and halls should be thoroughly scrubbed with 
soap and water at least once each month.)" 

Disinfection. It is a good rule of sanitation that build- 
ings should be so cleansed that disinfectants and deodorants 
are not needed. Inside toilet rooms should be built of 
impervious and smooth materials so that the hose can be 
turned daily with good effect on the walls and floors. It 
is not a good sign when plumbing fixtures need deodorizing ; 
ventilation and flushing should accomplish all that is neces- 
sary in this direction. Outdoor closets, however, must al- 
ways be regularly disinfected and deodorized. Besides the 
periodical cleaning already recommended, the building 
should receive a thorough going over during vacation time 
or before school reopens. Walls and floors should then 
be washed with hot water and soap, and there should be 
disinfection of the classrooms, the warm air flues, and the 
fresh air receiving chambers. A widely used agent of dis- 
infection is formalin — a forty per cent solution of for- 
maldehyde. 

Practice of Personal Hygiene. Ideals of cleanliness 
should of course find their final expression in personal hy- 
giene in the school. Pupils with good home training should 
not be exposed to the influence of a school that is without 
the proper standards. Only the best standards should pre- 
vail for the sake of all the children no matter where they 
live. There must always be provided a place where the 



140 Education and the General Welfare 

children can wash and keep their faces and hands clean. 
It should be the rule that always on returning from the 
toilet the hands should be washed and always before taking 
food. Towels, pencils, etc., — all things that are carried 
to the mouth should be unexchangeable individual posses- 
sions. All personal belongings should be kept clean. In- 
struction in the grades on the importance of clean teeth, 
nails, hair, ears, clothing, on the use of the handkerchief, 
on bathing, to be found in the excellent books now to be had 
on the subject, is clearly valueless unless its results are 
practical. 

Health Monitors. A large part of the work in sanita- 
tion including ventilation may be made applied science by 
appointing health monitors or officers from among the 
students in the higher grades, each to serve a month or 
two weeks either in his own room or in a room where the 
children are too young to engage in such work, and this 
to be a part of the required course in physiology and hy- 
giene. The thermometer may be read at stated intervals 
and from the record a graphic chart or curve may be con- 
structed on a reserved space on the board, and other condi- 
tions of ventilation may be noted and a record kept. The 
monitor may adjust the windows for a periodic flushing of 
the room with fresh air from the outside, a practice that 
is recommended by the best authorities even with the most 
complete mechanical ventilating system in use. 

Credit for the Good Appearance of School and 
Grounds. While the teacher must take the initiative, and 
then the monitors, the good order and appearance of the 
school and grounds requires the cooperation of all the chil- 
dren and the credit for whatever is achieved belongs to 



Sanitation and School Housekeeping 141 

the whole school. All the children must feel that they share 
in the responsibility for keeping the school property and 
premises free from litter, dirt, and refuse, for keeping things 
in order and everything in its place, for care of property, 
and general appearances of cleanliness. Any one who lit- 
ters the floor, the yard, or the walks with paper should be 
required to pick up what he has thrown down. Civic pride 
in the good appearance of " our town " may well begin 
with the pupils in their relation to the schoolhouse and 
grounds. 



CHAPTER X 
Are All Children Alike? 

Summary of Preceding Chapters. We have considered 
the values and aims of education, the various sources of 
support, the school expense, getting the children into school 
and keeping them there for a reasonable time. Since we 
compel attendance we are obliged to have a regard for 
health and comfort in buildings and grounds, and their 
ventilation and sanitation. We now come to study the 
immediate object of all this preparation and expense — the 
children themselves. 

Classification of Children. In order to approach the 
various problems of the school in an intelligent way, it is 
helpful to consider the various classes of children that may 
be found in school, groups. In the olden time a child who 
did not learn was thought to be willful and stubborn and 
recourse was often had to the rod to break its rebelhous 
spirit. Teachers are now more thoughtful and they ap- 
proach the problems of management and discipline in a 
tolerant and more scientific spirit. If a child does not suc- 
ceed in school, granting that the teaching is all that it 
should be, it may be by reason of native incapacity, illness, 
or home environment. In this chapter will be considered 
the different grades of mentality, the influences of the 
home, and conditions of the environment that account for 

142 



Are All Children Alike? 143 

different types of children. Differences due to illness and 
physical defects will be reserved for separate chapters. 

Number of Feeble-minded. According to estimates of 
investigators the number of feeble-minded children of school 
age in the United States averages between i and 2 per cent. 
This would indicate that there are not less than a total of 
200,000. The report of the U. S. Commissioner of Edu- 
cation for the year 191 6 gives the total number in institu- 
tions and special day schools as 37,630. The term " feeble- 
minded " is one of general description. For the purpose of 
classification three grades are distinguished : 

Grades of Feeble-minded: 

Idiots — those so deeply defective that their mental develop- 
ment does not exceed that of a normal child of about 2 years. 

Imbeciles — those whose development is higher than that of an 
idiot, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about 7 years. 

Morons — those v^hose mental development is above that of an 
imbecile, but does not exceed that of a normal child of about 12 
years. ^ 

Each of these is further subdivided into three grades: 
low, middle, and high. A low grade idiot, for example, 
would be known at once, from mere observation, to be too 
feeble to attend school. Nor would a scientific equipment 
be necessary to determine the incapacity of a high grade 
of the same class. Under certain circumstances the other 
types would not be readily distinguished, and it would cer- 
tainly require special tests to ascertain the place in the scale 
of mentality that any of them would occupy. But the 
teacher who is in daily contact with her pupils would in 

1 Classification adopted, 1910, Amer. Assoc, for Study of the Feeble- 
minded. 



144 Education and the General Welfare 

time surely discover those who are incapable of advance- 
ment. In districts where no provision is made for the ex- 
amination of such children and for their segregation in 
schools especially organized for them, they may come to 
be a serious problem and the cause of much misdirected and 
wasted effort. 

The Backward Type. In the public schools those who 
are exceptionally retarded are grouped together in the same 
class, if there are enough to make it worth while, and among 
these are found the high grade feeble-minded. They are 
all described as the " backward " type. But there is this 
distinction to be made : while all feeble-minded are retarded, 
not all retarded children are feeble-minded. Children may 
be exceptionally retarded through late entrance to school, 
through prolonged illness, and for other reasons. But 
when children are left far behind for no apparent cause they 
represent border line cases, if they are not actually feeble- 
minded. The backward type are those who are three or 
more years behind their normal grade. Some authorities 
prefer to make the distinguishing mark four or more years 
behind the normal grade. A test by Goddard of 1547 
children of the first six grades of a small city showed 15 
per cent two or three years below grade and 3.3 per cent 
four or more years below grade. The number of the back- 
ward type it has been estimated to be about 3 per cent of 
the school population, or a total in the United States of 
600,000. 

Difference in Proportion of Feeble-minded in Differ- 
ent Localities. There is evidence to show that while the 
average of feeble-minded and backward children is not more 
than 2 and 3 per cent respectively, there seems to be con- 



Are All Children Alike? 145 

siderable difference as to the number in different localities. 
In one city there were found about i per cent of each of 
these types in the number examined.^ In another large 
city the number of feeble-minded went as high as 3 per 
cent; and in another city of 5,000 population 6 per cent of 
the children were retarded three or more years. In the 
rural schools of a county in California the number of feeble- 
minded was 4 per cent ; in the same county in a single school 
wath 44 pupils there were 15 feeble-minded, ten of whom 
came from two related families.^ In one of the states a 
study has been made of both rural and urban school dis- 
tricts, with the following results : ^ 

Rural Urban 

Number Number Number Number 

examined feeble-minded examined feeble-minded 

Boys — 2,668 24 4,189 28 

Girls — 2,832 17 4,036 24 

The survey covered a small number of counties. The va- 
riation in per cent of feeble-minded found in the rural 
districts was from none to 3.5 per cent for boys and from 
none to 1.2 per cent for girls. In the urban districts the 
range was: boys from 0.46 to i.i per cent; girls from 0.26 
to I per cent. It seems, therefore, if these reports repre- 
sent the conditions, that there are concentrations or " nests " 
of feeble-minded persons in certain sections of the popula- 
tion. 

1 Haines : " The Feeble-minded Situation in Ohio." Ohio Bull. Char, 
and Cor,, Feb., 1917. 

- Terman : " Feeble-minded Children in the Public Schools of Cali- 
fornia," School and Society, Vol. V., Feb. 10, 1917. 

3 Treadway : " The Feeble-minded, their Prevalence and Needs in 
School Population of Arkansas." U. S. Health Service, 1916. 



146 Education and the General Welfare 

Training of Feeble-minded. The training of which 
feeble-minded children are capable is extremely limited. 
They are incapable of development; there is no cure for a 
deficiency of this kind. In the special schools to which they 
are sent the training given them is chiefly hand work. 
Within the limits of their psychological age they may be 
trained as helpers in certain activities where they may be 
under constant supervision and guidance. A moron may, 
by proper training, be made capable of self-support in cer- 
tain lines of work. But in certain ways a person of this 
type when at large may be a positive menace to society ; be- 
cause the deficiency of mind is not apparent, and such a 
person may have the physical appearance and vigor, the de- 
sires and instincts of those who are normal, and may con- 
tinue the type. 

The Moral Imbecile. Imbecility may take a moral as 
well as a mental direction. When a child is utterly incor- 
rigible, it becomes a question whether it is not also mentally 
defective. The moral delinquency may take one form or 
another; a child may manifest a mania for stealing, for 
immodest behavior, for falsehood, or it may seem to be ob- 
sessed with uncontrollable desires of any other kind incom- 
patible with social decency. Here again we come to a bor- 
der line, that between moral imbecility and actual lunacy. 
As adults such children would be regarded as responsible 
criminals or they would be adjudged insane. Manifesta- 
tions ^ of extreme cruelty to domestic animals and to other 
children, extreme obstinacy, outbreaks of ungovernable tem- 

^ Winslow : " The Insanity of Passion and Crime." See Chapter on 
"Tragedy of Early Mental Collapse," p. 247 ff. Ouseley and Son, 
London, 1912. 



Are All Children Alike? 147 

per and violent language, obscenity, arson, and inability to 
do any work, are among the marks of the mentally unbal- 
anced. In the feeble-minded, development of the nervous 
structures is arrested in all directions ; in the insane, certain 
of the structures are broken down and do not function. In 
the one the will is impotent, in the other it is strong but be- 
yond control. But insanity is so rarely found in children 
that it is of professional interest to the alienist rather than 
the teacher. In 21,333 cases of this malady, Winslow found 
only 8 under ten years of age ; there were 11, 161 between the 
ages of 10 and 20. 

Retardants and Accelerants. Besides the classes of 
children already enumerated — the feeble-minded of various 
grades, the backward or exceptionally retarded, and the 
moral imbecile — there remain to be considered the mod- 
erately retarded, two years or less; the largest group of 
those who are just at age and not at all retarded; and finally 
the relatively few who are under age for the grade to 
which they belong, sometimes called the accelerants or es- 
pecially gifted. 

In a recent study of retardation and acceleration in 22y 
towns and cities of the state of Michigan with an enroll- 
ment of 223,000 pupils, including towns of less than 2,000 
inhabitants as well as the large cities, it was found that 
the proportion of those " under-age," " at age," and " over 
age " in the school grades was as follows : ^ 

Under age At age Over age 

2 yrs. I yr. Total i yr. 2 yrs. 3 yrs. Total 

.2 6.3 6.5 per cent. 69.5 per cent. 14.5 6.0 3.5 24.0 

1 Berry : " A Study of Retardation, Acceleration, Elimination, and 



148 Education and the General Welfare 

It is to be understood that " over age " is not necessarily 
equivalent to dullness, nor does *' under age " always mean 
exceptional ability; for the first may be due to late en- 
trance and the second to early entrance upon school work 
and keeping to grade in both cases. Under these conditions 
the children make normal advancement like those '' at age " 
and present no problem to the teacher, unless in the case of 
those " over age " the difference between them and their 
classmates is so great as to make them conscious of it and 
cause them embarrassment. 

It is, however, also to be remembered that the significance 
of retardation depends on the part of the school career in 
which it occurs. In general, when it occurs below the 
fourth grade and is not due to continued absence, it is to be 
interpreted as closely related to mental deficiency; but when 
a child keeps up to grade for four years of school life and 
then falls behind, we should expect to find the cause in way- 
wardness of character, unfavorable home conditions, or 
faulty teaching. 

For teachers the matter of chief importance is not so 
much, therefore, whether a child is over age. This may be 
due to circumstances over which the teacher has no control. 
And she is not responsible for the status of the pupils when 
they come to her for the first time. It must be her chief 
concern that while they are with her they do not fall be- 
hind but are prepared to go on at the end of the term to 
the next grade without a handicap. Skill in teaching and 
management shows in reduced retardation and increased ac- 
celeration, in rousing the slow out of their mental lethargy 

Repetition " in the Public Elementary Schools of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor, 1916. 



Are All Children Alike? 149 

and stimulating the self-satisfied so as to increase their pace 
through the school years, while at the same time the best 
standards of scholarship are constantly maintained. 

Except in the case of the feeble-minded, the proportions 
of retarded and accelerated children in the schools as pub- 
lished are not fateful and unchangeable. There should be 
a large number of those who skip grades and a smaller 
number of those who fall behind. There is not much doubt 
among schoolmen that the pupils who could advance more 
rapidly than they now do are much neglected. Too little 
effort is made to discover them and give full employment 
to their somewhat exceptional powers. They may be pro- 
vided for in various ways.. They may be promoted to a 
higher grade whenever they show they are capable of the 
more advanced work or they may be promoted in those sub- 
jects in which they manifest superior abiHty. Some of the 
cities have special classes for them as well as for those who 
are much retarded. If promotion is not possible at the 
time, they may be given more advanced work in the grade to 
which they belong. 

Retardation may be reduced by superior teaching. It 
might also be reduced somewhat by increasing the number 
of opportunities in which excellence is recognized. Under 
the present organization superiority is measured largely by 
what the pupils can do with books. Retarded pupils show 
in many cases that they learn more rapidly through experi- 
ence with things. And teachers are prone to forget that 
the objective world is a proper educational field, that cur- 
ricula existed outside in the experience of man before they 
were systematized in books. While the newer type of 
schools does not belittle the use of books and magnify the 



150 Education and the General Welfare 

work of the hand, it gives more weight to the use of things 
for educational purposes than the traditional school. 

Every teacher should bear in mind, therefore, that a class 
may divide itself into three groups of children: the slow, 
the bright, and a relatively large number who are of average 
capacity. A wise management will require plans for lessons 
and activities that take some account of the differences be- 
tween these groups. This is an unavoidable permanent 
problem, when the conditions are such as to prevent close 
classification, and it will always test the skill of the best 
teachers. 

Differences Between the Country and the City En- 
vironment. Another cause of differences between school 
children is economic and social conditions. If we include 
under this head the difference between the country and the 
city environment, there is revealed at once a number of char- 
acteristics that distinguish the two largest bodies of school 
children. The country child has a more limited social en- 
vironment. He is brought in closer contact with natural 
processes. Long distances and the state of the weather 
often delay the gratification of passing desires. In the 
country one learns patience to wait for the realization of 
things long hoped for. On the farm pay days do not come 
so often as in the city and the purchase of supplies waits for 
the gathering of the harvests. The country child also sees 
the slow process of growth and soon gains an idea of the 
chain of cause and effect in its relation to a final product. 
He knows the meaning of milk, beef, and grain in all their 
antecedent relations. 

This kind of life has its inevitable psychic effect. The 
country child is often alone and is not the victim of all 



Are All Children Alike? 151 

sorts of distractions. Habits of attention are acquired that 
distinguish him from the child of the crowded city. He 
becomes capable of greater concentration and is relatively 
slow in shifting his thought from one attraction to another. 
Unlike the city child he is not in danger of overstimulation. 
There is likely to be too limited an amount of educative 
material in the way of books and pictures for a proper ex- 
tension of his mental horizon. 

On the other hand, the child living in the crowded sections 
of a large city has acquired the habit of shifting interests 
and attention. In his environment, appeals to the different 
senses come in a constant stream. He lives in the midst of 
alarms. When he awakes, when he goes to school, when 
he tries to recite, when he goes to sleep, the clamor of the 
street pours into his ears. The country child in compari- 
son lives in silence and solitude. The city child knows lit- 
tle of the patience of waiting. The supply of all his wants 
is in all the markets and stores, ready to wear or use or 
consume. Unless the experience comes to him in the con- 
structive work of the school he seldom learns to know things 
as unitary wholes. Of the milk and grain industry he 
comes to know only the final part and of its economics the 
last transaction. What he knows of industry develops be- 
fore his eyes in the moving picture ; the industrial process of 
a week he takes in during an hour. Amid all his distractions 
he seeks new novelties and new thrills; his jaded nerves de- 
mand fresh stimuli to preserve in him the consciousness ol 
reality. 

In addition to all this, for the city child danger lurks 
everywhere. When he goes out of the house, safety for life 
and limb develops the habit of caution. When he crosses 



152 Education and the General Welfare 

the street he must look out for the cars and autos and at the 
same time see where he is going. He must beware of ele- 
vator shafts, manholes, and hve wires. He is ever on the 
lookout for amusement and to escape the meshes of his com- 
plex surroundings. 

But the city experience has its peculiar values. The im- 
portant point is to appreciate the difference in habits of 
mind between these two types of children. In the one for 
the limited range of the field of attention, the compensation 
is concentration and steadiness. In the other, for the tend- 
ency to be superficial, the compensation is a wide distribu- 
tion of attention and an alert response to the environment. 
The country's limited social atmosphere begets a subjective 
tendency and a strong sense of individuality, while life in a 
large community tends to develop the social nature and 
bring the child in touch with world-wide interests. 

Difference in Economic and Social Conditions. It is 
indispensable to the wise management of a school that chil- 
dren should be further classified. It has been found, as has 
been stated in another chapter, that most of the troubles of 
non-attendance and juvenile delinquency are traceable to the 
economic and moral conditions of the home. It is neces- 
sary to know something of the home life of the children 
in order to appreciate their social situation even if a needed 
change cannot be made. In the city particularly, we have, 
classifying roughly, the children of the desperately poor, 
those of the middle class, and those of very well-to-do 
parents. 

While there are exceptions to the rule, teachers of ex- 
perience tell us that the children of the middle class are 
usually the ambitious and aspiring kind whose parents give 



Are All Children Alike?- 153 

intelligent support to the school. In the homes where every- 
thing is provided in great abundance and the economic situa- 
tion is perfectly secure, the children are sometimes, by no 
means always, the victims of too much attention with too 
great a variety of passive interests. In school the teacher 
may find that they expect to be amused and entertained, 
have a wandering attention, and lack initiative for study 
and have no power of attack. They have had the advan- 
tage of travel with their parents and their experience in the 
real world has been so wide and varied that matters of in- 
terest and wonder to the ordinary child do not appeal to 
them. This class presents a difficult problem of manage- 
ment, but it usually falls to the private rather than the 
public school. When ordinary appeals fail it is often found 
that constructive work forms a center of interest for them, 
and this may be correlated with certain of the fundamental 
studies of the curriculum. 

The Problem of the Bad Environment. It is the chil- 
dren of the hopelessly poor that present the most acute 
problems. These children live in the congested districts of 
our large cities. They are poorly housed, poorly fed, scant- 
ily and poorly clothed. At home they live in an atmosphere 
of despair. The parents have given up the fight for com- 
fort and respectability and are resigned to their fate. They 
long since gave up cherished ideals. They snatch at the 
pleasure of the moment as it may happen to come their way. 
They exploit, it may be, the labor and innocence of their 
children. They move frequently from one place to another. 
And even though they have a local habitation, their children 
are ever on the move; the street is more comfortable and 
certainlv more cheerful than the home as they know it. 



154 Education and the General Welfare 

They subsist on a diet irregular and unbalanced, of low 
nutritive value ; they get an insufficient amount of sleep ; they 
live in close, unsanitary quarters. While the schoolroom is 
the best place they ever know, they come there in a condition 
of low vitality, for less than six hours a day, so that on the 
mental side they represent the extreme type of fitful inat- 
tention and often a dullness so impenetrable that it is hardly 
to be distinguished from absolute feeble-mindedness. 

Types of Moral Delinquents. On the moral side of 
their nature, children of this class may be, it has been said, 
of two general types. The passive type are easily impressed 
with their vicious surroundings. They contract the habits 
of their parents when very young and sooner or later be- 
come acquainted with crimes against property and the 
grosser social delinquencies. They readily succumb to the 
temptations of the street. The other is the aggressive type 
whose delight in adventure makes them at times vagrants 
and on occasion bold criminals. 

Moral Influence of the School. But these children have 
to go to school. The teacher is the only good angel that has 
ever come into their lives. With intelligence and sympathy 
she may exert an influence upon them which may mean new 
ideals of character that will always remain with them. 
Much may be done to improve economic conditions through 
cooperation with social agencies. However, the teacher, if 
she looks upon her work as a mere routine of class man- 
agement without the broader vision of the whole school 
situation, which includes a study of the home relations, will 
make little or no change for the better. 

The first eight or nine years of a child's life is a formative 
period of tremendous importance. Tendencies of a social 



Are All Children Alike? 155 

and moral kind strike deep roots at that time. The kinder- 
garten and lower grades of the school need to employ social 
and moral motivations as much at least as any other kind, 
particularly where the home cannot be depended upon for 
training of this kind. In the years that follow up to 12 
or 13 the delinquencies are usually of the individualistic 
type. As this is the time of habit formation, a repeti- 
tion of offenses tends to make them habitual, perhaps for 
life. In the period that follows up to about 17 come the 
emotional disturbances that are connected with the storm 
and stress of adolescence. Sometimes the sharp conflict of 
instincts brings about pathological conditions or some in- 
stinct through strong pressure becomes dominant and leads 
for a time to excesses of one kind or another. Here the 
desire for social pleasures and comradeship may lead to 
immorality. To promote a counter tendency to these influ- 
ences the school can do the following: it can absorb the 
attention of the child in athletic games, in interesting hand- 
work, or in dramatics — any or all of these to keep the mind 
fully occupied; it can induce ideals of cleanliness beginning 
with bathing and a clean body and clean clothes; it can 
arouse admiration for the great and good and detestation 
for the mean and base through reading and the drama ; it can 
awaken the sense of self-respect by making the child feel 
that he shares responsibilities with others and that his teacher 
and his associates have confidence in him. 

The State's Guardianship. In the majority of the states 
the age of full moral responsibility is sixteen years. In 
some the limit is seventeen and in a few it has been made 
eighteen. There are three forms of legal definition for the 
wayward and neglected. They are essentially as follows : 



156 Education and the General Welfare 

Dependent child means any child under eighteen years of age 
who is dependent on the public for support; or who is destitute, 
homeless, or abandoned; or who has not proper parental care or 
guardianship; or who begs or receives alms; or who is given away 
or disposed of in any employment, service, exhibition, occupation, 
or vocation contrary to the law of the state; who is found living 
with vicious or disreputable persons or whose homes by reason of 
neglect, cruelty, or depravity on the part of the parent or person 
in whose care it may be, is an unfit place for such a child; or who 
is prevented from receiving proper education because of the con- 
duct or neglect of its parents or other person; or whose environ- 
ment is such as to warrant the state, in the interest of the child in 
assuming its guardianship. 

A child without proper parental care is one whose parents or 
guardian permit it to use or become addicted to tobacco, intoxi- 
cating liquors, or any injurious drug, or whose parents permit it 
in or about a saloon, gambling house, or a house of ill repute. 

Failure to support, or neglect of child is punishable by a fine of 
not less than ten dollars nor more than five hundred, or imprison- 
ment not less than ten days nor more than a year, or both fine and 
imprisonment. 

A delinquent child is one under eighteen years of age (i) who 
violates a law of the state, of a city or village ordinance; (2) 
who is incorrigible (that is, whose parents have no control over 
him and cannot prevent what in the preceding descriptions a 
parent or guardian is not permitted by law to allow a child to 
do) ; (3) who knowingly visits a gambling house or place where 
intoxicating liquors are sold or a public pool or billiard room; (4) 
who wanders about the street in the night time; (5) who wanders 
about railroad yards or tracks or jumps or catches on to a moving 
train, traction, or street car, or enters a car or engine without 
lawful authority; (6) who uses obscene or profane language; 
(7) who is guilty of immoral conduct; (8) who uses cigarets, or 
cigars, or tobacco, or injurious drugs; (9) who visits any theater 
or moving picture show where lewd exhibitions or performances 
are displayed; (10) who is an habitual truant. 

A juvenile disorderly person is a child of the age in which 



Are All Children Alike? 157 

school attendance is compulsory, whose parents prove inability to 
cause and compel school attendance. This is a form of delin- 
quency. If under ten years, the child is committed to a children's 
home ; if older, to a house of refuge. 

Any person having knowledge of a minor under the age 
of eighteen who appears to be either a delinquent, neg- 
lected, or dependent child, may file a complaint '' upon in- 
formation and belief " with a juvenile court or any other 
court having the necessary powers and jurisdiction. 

It is also important to know that delinquency laws have 
been supplemented in many states by providing for the pun- 
ishment by fine or imprisonment or both of any person who 
aids, abets, induces, causes, encourages, or contributes to- 
ward the delinquency, neglect or dependency of a minor, or 
acts in any way tending to cause delinquency in such minor. 

Summary. The children that come to school differ in 
mentality, in moral sense, in the habits of mind acquired 
by their environment, they differ in the rate of progress they 
are capable of making in their school work, they differ in 
the effect home conditions have upon their mental and moral 
character. It may be said that every one knows that these 
conditions exist. But it is a common fault of teachers, es- 
pecially beginners in the work, to have rigid views of disci- 
pline which are suited only to the average child and which 
assume that children are as uniform in character as justice 
is universal. The average child has only a theoretical ex- 
istence. The actual child of the schoolroom is the real 
problem of discipline. Fortunately, however, the larger 
number of children in a schoolroom as a rule cause little 
trouble and make teaching easy and pleasant. The prob- 
lems come in the case of the relatively small per cent who 



158 Education and the General Welfare 

loiter along the path of knowledge and those who are likely 
to become demoralized by slow progress. The greater prob- 
lems come when the teacher must struggle alone against the 
willful ignorance of the child supported by the powers of 
evil in the home, where conditions may become so bad that 
the state itself steps in to save the child from himself or 
from those who would neglect or exploit him. 



CHAPTER XI 
The Public School and the Public Health 

The State's Responsibility. Since compulsory attend- 
ance laws have been placed on the statute books in the vari- 
ous states, all the children of all the people are now required 
to go to school. It is the state's responsibility to provide 
suitable buildings and grounds and to make the living condi- 
tions at the school satisfy the best standards of sanitation. 
It must go further and guard the children against infection 
from communicable disease. The school must have its own 
means of knowing whether a child is ill or not. The par- 
ent's word is not final as to whether a child is too ill to 
attend or has recovered sufficiently to return to school. For 
certain proof of this the teacher will depend on a physician's 
certificate or on the diagnosis by the medical inspector. 
However, as regards the illness of individual children, the 
teacher who is with them all day may be the first to dis- 
cover the symptoms, whether the school has a system of 
medical inspection or not. 

The State's Opportunity. But the school is also the 
state's opportunity. It is a means of instructing the public 
in the prevention of disease. This is, of course, an interest 
of the state that transcends all others, as all others depend 
on it. And the example of sanitation and the practice of 

159 



i6o Education and the General Welfare 

hygiene in the school will afford instruction all the more ef- 
fective because in school where the many are housed the 
standards must necessarily be higher than in the home. 

Health Service. But as the teacher cannot be depended 
upon for a final decision in regard to cases of illness, and 
because the problem becomes a large one where children con- 
gregate in large numbers, the large cities and many states 
have organized a health service for the schools. In seven 
states the law on medical inspection is mandatory, in ten 
it is permissive. In some of the states the board of health 
instead of the board of education exercises the final author- 
ity. The statutes of Ohio are permissive, allowing every 
board of education to appoint at least one school physician ; 
two or more districts may unite and appoint one such physi- 
cian. Such boards may also employ trained nurses to as- 
sist the school physicians in making examinations of all chil- 
dren referred to them, at the beginning of every school year 
and at other times if deemed desirable. Besides, they may 
make examinations of teachers, janitors, and school build- 
ings as in their opinion the protection of the health of the 
pupils and teachers may require. If any teacher or janitor 
is found to have positive open pulmonary tuberculosis or 
any other communicable disease, his or her employment shall 
be discontinued upon the expiration of the contract therefor, 
or, at the option of the board, suspended upon such terms 
as to salary as the board may deem just until the school 
physician shall have certified to a recovery from the disease. 

In school hygiene the interests of several professions meet 
on common ground. The teacher is concerned from the pro- 
fessional point of view because illness interrupts educational 
progress. The physician is primarily interested in the pre- 



The Public School and the Public Health i6i 

vention of disease. The school nurse assists the physician 
and acts as an intermediary between the home and the school. 
The teacher reports on symptoms of illness observed, the 
physician diagnoses the cases and prescribes treatment, the 
nurse follows up all the cases of illness from the school to 
the home until recovery can be reported and until, upon re- 
examination by the physician, the child is permitted to re- 
turn to school. The interest of boards of health lies in the 
fact that the school presents dangerous possibilities of 
spreading epidemics through the community. On the other 
hand, it is a convenient agency to circulate information on 
matters of hygiene and sanitation. 

School Hygiene a Part of the Public Health Move- 
ment. School hygiene and sanitation is a part of a world- 
wide movement. Sanitation has reference to places and 
things, hygiene has reference to persons. Stated in simple 
form it is the purpose of each to prevent illness and prema- 
ture death. Hygiene has been defined by Sedgwick as the 
science and art of the conservation and promotion of health 
both in individuals and communities. The movement tran- 
scends the bounds of nationality in its interests. No nation 
can in these days look with indifference upon a neighbor- 
ing people that neglects the public health. 

In the course of only a few centuries, the prevention of 
disease, in principle and practice, has made impressive his- 
tory among the foremost nations of the world. Three cen- 
turies ago the death-rate of London was 80 per 1000; now it 
is 15. In the i8th century before the introduction of vac- 
cination, an average of 500,000 people died annually in 
Europe of small-pox alone. This disease is now almost 
unknown where vaccination is compulsory. Official reports 



1 62 Education and the General Welfare 

show that the death-rate in England and Wales fell from 
22.6 per looo in 1862 to 17.9 in 1889.^ 

In New York City the death-rate in 1866 was 35 per 
1000; in 1914, 13.3. In the same city from the period 
1 868-1 877 to 191 3, the death-rate from diphtheria alone 
fell from 154 per icx),ooo to 32.^ 

The number of deaths from typhoid fever fell in Eng- 
land and Wales from 39 in 1869 to 8.9 per 100,000 in 
1905. Improved methods of sanitation and anti-typhoid 
vaccination in the United States army have had the follow- 
ing results : ^ 

No, of men Cases of typhoid Deaths 
Without vaccination in 

Spanish War, 1898 107^973 20,738 1,580 

With vaccination, army on 

Mexican Border, 1913 90,000 3 o 

Rejections for Service in the United States Army. 

From the Report of the Provost Marshal General of the 
First Draft under the Selective Service Act, 191 7, it appears 
that the per cent of rejections in the draft was higher than 
in the average of four drafts during the Civil War. The 
totals of the Report give the number physically examined 
by local boards and the number rejected as follows: 

Total physically examined 2,510,706 

Total rejected 730756 29.11 per cent. 

Civil war per cent of rejections 25.74 

A small number, 4 per cent, of those accepted by local 
boards were rejected by camp surgeons. While there is 

1 Egbert : " A Manual of Hygiene and Sanitation," Philadelphia, 
1910, p. 21 ff. Lea and Febiger. 

2 Wood : " Sanitation Practically Applied," New York, 1917. 




X ^ -'£ 



163 



164 Education and the General Welfare 

considerable difference in the per cent of rejections, seem- 
ing to indicate a superior physical condition of American 
citizenship at the time of the Civil War, the Report ^ makes 
the following comment : 

'' In view of the great advance since the Civil War in 
standards of medical diagnosis and physical perfection, the 
figures indicate a decided improvement in national physical 
condition during the past two generations." 

Death-rate in the United States. The death-rate in the 
United States for 191 5 was 13.5 per 1000. Countries with 
a lower rate were Denmark, Holland, Australia, and New 
Zealand. From 1904 to 191 5 the mortality from tubercu- 
losis in the United States fell 28 per cent,^ owing largely 
no doubt to the active campaign that has been conducted 
against the disease. 

Infant Mortality. Although reduced to 95 per 1000 
under the age of one year in the statistics for 1912, the 
death-rate of infants is still very high. Out of a total mor- 
tality of 128,136 in New York City in the three years 
from 1890^1892, the following are the proportions with re- 
spect to age : 

Under i yr. 1-2 yrs. 2-5 yrs. 5-15 yrs. Over 15 yrs. 
26 87 5 54 per cent 

In England 85,000 children died in 19 16 within nine months 
after birth. The Minister of Education declared that the 
roll of infant casualties for that year equaled the roll of 
casualties in one of the greatest and most protracted battles 

1 Report of the Provost Marshal General of the First Draft under 
the Selective Service Act, 191 7, p. 44-45. 

2 Bulletin issued by the Census Bureau, Department of the Interior, 
1916. 



The Public School and the Public Health 165 

of the Great War. The rate was 105 per thousand, and it 
was said, " It is more dangerous to be a baby in England 
than a soldier in France." 

The Duration of Life. Infant mortality is greater than 
it need be in all the countries of the world. If a reasonable 
number of deaths due to infantile diseases could be pre- 
vented by insistence on pure milk, fresh air, pure water, and 
reasonable measures of safety, eight years could be added 
to the average duration of life in the United States.^ This 
for the United States and England is 45 years, while for 
Sweden and Denmark, for example, it is 5 years higher. In 
India it is only 25 years. In America many lives are an- 
nually sacrificed to preventable diseases, and to the mania 
for rapid motion. 

Money Cost of Disease in the United States. It is 
estimated that tuberculosis alone costs the nation $1,000,- 
000,000; typhoid fever, $300,000,000. In round numbers, 
there are in this country 3,000,000 persons constantly in- 
capacitated on account of sickness. 

The Warfare Against Communicable Disease. The 
Massachusetts Registration Report gives the number of 
death-causing varieties of disease under the following 
heads : 

No. 

I Zymotic diseases (Fever, etc.) 32 

II Constitutional diseases (Cancer, gout, dropsy, etc.) 10 

III Local diseases (Apoplexy, heart disease, etc.) 48 

IV Developmental diseases (Old age, teething, etc.) 10 
V Violence from without 14 

1 Fisher : Report on " National Vitality, Its Waste and Conservation," 
1909; Memorial to the U. S. Senate on Conservation, Congressional 
Record, 1912. 



1 66 Education and the General Welfare 

They may be classified into constitutional and environmental 
or intrinsic and extrinsic.^ A late and convenient classifi- 
cation for our purpose places the different diseases under 
two heads: Communicable and Non-communicable.^ 
Counting the communicable type as equivalent to the zy- 
motic, or " fermentative," there are, then, 32 death-causing 
varieties of this type of diseases. 

Economy of Prevention. Both teachers and pupils need 
to study the behavior of the micro-organisms that cause 
these diseases in order to learn how to prevent them. All 
the trouble or expense it may take to escape them is a vast 
economy. An enlightened civic responsibility that would 
guard even without legal restraint against the possibility 
of transmitting them is also a proper goal for school in- 
struction. Prevention at whatever expense is the great 
strategy. " The public health is purchasable ; within natural 
limitations a community can determine its own death rate." 

School Diseases. The diseases which might possibly 
break out in a school are enumerated in the rules of the 
Wisconsin State Board of Health, which do not permit 

" the attendance in private, parochial, or public school of any pu- 
pil afflicted with a severe cough, a severe cold, itch, hce, or other 
vermin, or any contagious skin disease, or who is filthy in body or 
clothing, or who has the following dangerous, contagious or infect- 
ious diseases, to wit : Diphtheria, small-pox, scarlet fever, measles, 
whooping-cough, chicken-pox, mumps, pulmonary tuberculosis, 
Asiatic cholera, yellow fever, typhus fever, bubonic plague, cere- 
bro-spinal meningitis, or acute poliomyelitis. The teachers in all 
schools shall without delay send home any pupil who is obviously 

1 Sedgwick : " Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health," 
New York, 1914, p. 8, The Macmillan Company, 

2 Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. Z3^' 



The Public School and the Public Health 167 

sick even if the ailment is unknown, and the teacher shall inform 
the parents or guardians of the pupil and also the local health 
officer as soon as possible, and the officer shall examine into the 
case and take such action as is reasonable and necessary for the 
benefit of the pupils and to prevent the Spread of infection." 

The last few of the diseases named are comparatively 
rare and teachers are not prepared to recognize their spe- 
cific symptoms. Asiatic cholera, bubonic plague, typhus fe- 
ver are almost unknown in America as strict enforcement of 
quarantine regulations at ports of entry have kept them 
from our shores. Tuberculosis is sometimes latent in chil- 
dren, difficult to diagnose, and hardly distinguishable from 
anaemia. It is, generally, anaemic children that are classed 
as pretuberculous and they are best cared for in open 
air schools. Yellow fever which took by death one in every 
ten of the inhabitants of Philadelphia in 1793 has been 
wiped out even in southern cities where it was of common 
recurrence, through the discovery in 1900, that a species of 
mosquito was the carrier that caused the disease. Small- 
pox is very rare and not dangerous wherever the law on 
compulsory vaccination is strictly enforced. The princi- 
pal communicable diseases of the school that remain for us 
to wage war against and exterminate are diphtheria, scarlet- 
fever, measles, whooping-cough, chicken-pox, and mumps. 
These are the chief, not forgetting, however, that certain 
skin and eye diseases and influenza also assume consider- 
able importance at timics. 

What are Bacteria? The beginning of success in the 
fight against communicable disease dates from the time be- 
lief in spontaneous generation was abandoned and scientists 
began to study the forms of life which were associated 



1 68 Education and the General Welfare 

with these ailments. These were at first regarded as little 
animals (animalcules) and the name germ was applied to 
them under the mistaken conception. That they are plant 
organisms is a comparatively recent discovery. Now the 
authorized general name is bacterium, of which there are two 
kinds : pathogenic, those causing disease, and non-patho- 
genic, those that do not. We are concerned here with only 
the former. They are minute forms, some spherical and 
others elongated, varying in length from a fraction of a 
micro-millimeter to 40 micro-millimeters, a micro-millimeter 
being one twenty-five thousandth part of an inch. They 
are unicellular organisms and belong to the division of 
flowerless plants, being classed as fungi and related to the 
molds, mildews, puffballs, mushrooms, etc. 

They reproduce their kind by the method of fission, the 
cell dividing to become two cells, and by the generation of 
spores. It has been estimated that a single " germ " can 
produce by simple fission two of its kind in an hour. In 
three days there would be so many that they could hardly 
be counted. 

An Instructive Parallel. One of the most important 
events in the history of medical science was the discovery 
of the parallel between the process of fermentation and 
the course of a communicable disease. It was known that 
if any fruit juice was left exposed to the air fermentation 
would soon begin. Then it would '' work," that is, it 
would show disturbances on account of the generation of 
gases. This was followed by a period of quiescence and 
then the change would become complete, alcohol having 
taken the place of the sugar content. After this there was 
no change. It would now *' keep." In the same way there 



The Public School and the Public Health 169 

are five steps in the course of a communicable disease: 
I. Exposure, infection takes place. 2. A period of quie- 
scence, incubation. 3. The active stage of the disease. 
4. Convalescence, or death. 5. No further change, im- 
munity. Immunity may be total, the disease will not re- 
turn at all, or temporary, it will not soon return, or partial, 
it will return only in a mild form.^ 

Discovery of Specific Germs. Since these micro-organ- 
isms were of the plant world a study of their growth was a 
sort of horticulture. The name '' cultures " was therefore 
given to groups of them isolated for study. In 1839 it was 
discovered that yeast is a parasitic fungus and that favns 
of the human scalp is a parasitic fungus growth at the roots 
of the hair. In 1876 it was proved that in the case of an- 
thrax, bacteria were the cause of the disease. In the early 
eighties Pasteur made a public demonstration of his bril- 
liant discoveries in splenic fever which affects cattle and 
sheep. In 1882 the bacillus of tuberculosis and in the fol- 
lowing year that of Asiatic cholera were discovered by 
Koch. Other scientists isolated the bacilli of diphtheria 
and tetanus in 1884. 

Where Bacteria Thrive. Bacteria that cause disease 
are to be found wherever man, animals, and plants live, die, 
and decompose. If found in the air it is not far usually 
from their chief food supply. There are none at the top 
of the Alps, the higher the altitude the fewer there are. 
They are to be found in the soil but not deeper down 
than about a meter. If they are in the air it is due to 
scattering along with the dust. Notwithstanding the fact 

1 Sedgwick : " Principles of Sanitary Science and Public Health," 
op. cit., p. 39. 



170 Education and the General Welfare 

that bacteria are all about us, the body-juices and tissues of 
normal animals are free from them. When they are trans- 
ferred from without and into the blood and the tissues, they 
set up a condition of disease. 

How Bacteria Get into the Blood. Again fermentation 
in the case of fruit may serve to illustrate. Peaches, plums, 
apples, etc., decay when their covering is pierced. The skin 
on the fruit is bacteria-proof. As soon as it is bruised or 
punctured so that the skin is broken the infection begins 
and spreads until the whole fruit undergoes a change. Sim- 
ilarly the skin of the outside of the human body and the 
epithelial structures or cellular coverings of the cavities and 
canals within are to a certain extent protective. Those ep- 
ithelia in which absorption and secretion take place are not 
protective to the same degree as the outer covering, the skin, 
but in normal conditions they are provided with certain 
means of protection. 

When the skin is pierced by a nail, a pin, a splinter, the 
bacterial infection is carried in by means of these pene- 
trating bodies. An antiseptic preparation is often used 
after such an accident to cleanse the wound, not to keep in- 
fection from the air out of the wound. W^hen a foreign 
body pierces the skin the infection is at first local and later 
may become general so as to involve finally the whole body 
and in this form is often fatal and known as " blood-poison- 
ing." Any foreign body penetrating the skin may bring 
bacteria. It may be through bullets, knives, daggers, or 
through the sting of insects or the bite of serpents. 

Other modes of infection are through the delicate lining 
of the cavities in the mouth, nose, throat, lungs, and di- 
gestive and genito-urinary tracts. Under certain circum- 



The Public School and the Public Health 171 

stances these structures become susceptible to infection 
through a weakening of the tissues; in this case bacteria 
instead of nutrient elements are absorbed and thus gain 
an entrance into the blood. In diphtheria the bacilli of the 
disease find lodgment on the tissues of the throat. As they 
feed and multiply the normal activity of the cells is grad- 
ually weakened, lymph exudes, '' white patches " form, 
and the powerful toxin is absorbed into the blood. In sim- 
ilar ways the bacilli of Asiatic cholera attack the large and 
small intestine and those of typhoid fever, the small intes- 
tine. The bacillus of tuberculosis usually prefers the epi- 
thelial tissue of the lungs. 

Modes of Transmission. Communicable diseases are 
to be further classified as intestinal, eruptive, and respira- 
tory. Of the first class are cholera, dysentery, and typhoid 
fever. In this kind of disease the solid and liquid excreta 
of the body are the sources of infection. Of the second 
class are scarlet fever, measles, small-pox, etc. In these, 
pustules form on the skin which in time open and discharge 
their secretions and are sources of infection. The diseases 
of the respiratory tract are those which affect the mouth, 
nose, throat, or lungs. Diphtheria and tuberculosis be- 
long to this group. They depend for their transmission 
upon the secretions ejected from the mouth or the nostrils. 
In all cases the infected matter may be carried to a sus- 
ceptible person directly as solid matter, or in water or milk, 
or may dry and in pulverized form be conveyed as dust. 
It may be carried by animals and men not suffering from 
the disease. The bacilli of diphtheria have been found in 
the throat of well persons and such as were not at all likely 
to be sick with the disease. Typhoid is carried by some 



172 Education and the General Welfare 

patients for as much as a year after the beginning of con- 
valescence. But the germs cannot exist long without con- 
tact with a host. It is safe to believe that they cannot re- 
main for a long time far from man, animal, or plant without 
becoming much attenuated from lack of nourishment and 
therefore comparatively harmless. 

It is generally believed now that these diseases are trans- 
mitted in almost all cases through actual contact, and when 
symptoms appear it is held to be of greatest importance to 
isolate at once the person infected and those exposed to the 
infection. This is of primary importance; the disinfection 
of books, clothing, furniture, letters, for example, is con- 
sidered of secondary importance. Danger would lie only in 
objects the diseased person had recently handled, put into 
the mouth, or in some other way transferred the germs to 
things about the person. In order that there may be infec- 
tion from the air or objects handled the material of infec- 
tion must be fresh, that is, the bacteria must recently have 
been thrown off or ejected from a person ill with the disease. 
Under hospital conditions, in which supreme regard is had 
for cleanness, patients have been placed quite near to each 
other without a separating partition and without danger of 
infection simply because the air as such does not appear 
to be a carrier of disease. 

Why Dust is Dangerous. But dust is dangerous and 
for two reasons : either as infected with microbes or in case 
the particles which form it are gritty they tend to lacerate 
the delicate lining of the throat and lungs and thus prepare 
the way for bacterial infection. In the air itself very few 
harmful bacteria could long survive. It is from dust stirred 
up again and again on roads where human beings and ani- 



The Public School and the Public Health 173 

mals travel and in rooms where they live that the air be- 
comes germ-laden. In a dust-storm five feet above the sur- 
face of a macadamized street there were detected in ten liters 
of air 200,000 micro-organisms. Quiet air is relatively 
free from them. Sewage has been found to contain 4,726,- 
000 bacteria per cubic centimeter, but sewer air is often 
quite free from microbes.^ One of the surprising facts 
that bacteriology has actually demonstrated is that the ex- 
pired breath of the ordinary human being is practically germ 
free. The primary source of infection is in the solid and 
liquid excreta of man and animals. It is from these dis- 
charges and those from the skin that infected material gets 
mixed with dirt, dries, and is blown about by the wind, or 
it is carried by water or transferred by human contact. 
To summarize, diseases may be transmitted by 

1. Direct contact with the sick 

2. Infection from food and drink 

3. Insects, such as flies 

4. Infected earth 

5. Domestic animals 

6. Germs adhering to clothing 

7. Dust in the air 

Susceptibility, Resistance, Immunity. Disease mi- 
crobes usually thrive best in conditions that are most agree- 
able to human beings. Most of them need a certain amount 
of free oxygen, organic matter, and moisture in order to 
live. The temperature of a comfortably heated room is 
favorable to their growth. The direct rays of the sun and, 
to a less degree, the rays of the electric arc-light retard the 

1 Sedgwick : " Principles of Sanitary Science and Public Health," 
pp. 113, 125. 



174 Education and the General Welfare 

growth and in numerous cases kill bacteria. The presence 
of certain chemical agents such as bichloride of mercury, 
carbolic acid, and formaldehyde inhibit their development 
and are known as antiseptics. 

Vital Resistance is the intermediary condition between 
immunity and susceptibility. The relation between vital 
resistance and communicable disease, it has been suggested, 

may be expressed in the formula, D equals — in which D 

R 
represents the disease, M the micro-organism causing it, and 

R vital resistance of the organism attacked. The power of 

M depends on the number of M and their virulence, hence 

the formula should read D equals ^ .^ High resistance 

R 
and a limited number of microbes offer one means of escape 

from disease ; immunity offers another. 

Immunity is ability to resist infection. Animals and man 
have a natural immunity to some bacteria. Certain animals 
are immune to some and not to others. Human beings in 
robust and healthy conditions are relatively immune to in- 
fections. When vital resistance is lowered through loss of 
sleep, malnutrition, or fatigue, the susceptibility to infec- 
tion is increased. Immunity may be acquired by the system 
after it has been subjected to the course of a disease. It 
may be artificially induced before infection takes place as in 
small-pox and typhoid vaccination, or after the first few 
days of infection as in the case of diphtheria by means of 
an anti-toxin. It was Pasteur's hypothesis that if an infec- 
tious disease is really a struggle between man and the mi- 
crobe it might be possible to reduce the virulence of any mi- 

1 Sedgwick : op. cit., pp. 82-84. 



The Public School and the Public Health 175 

crobe by subjecting it to an unfavorable environment and 
thus give man the advantage in the conflict when it comes. 
Heat, cold, starvation, overfeeding, suggested themselves as 
means of producing " attenuation " in the microbes. He 
finally proved by experiment that this could be done. By 
means of cultures of attenuated bacteria he inoculated ani- 
mals and proved that they became immune to the infection 
of virulent bacteria of the same class. 

The White Corpuscles. The theory of Metschnikoff 
was that the source of resistance is in the white corpuscles 
of the blood, that in the course of a communicable or in- 
fectious disease the struggle is between these corpuscles and 
the virulent microbes, and that the issue of life and death 
depends on which of these win in the struggle. The in- 
troduction of the weakened cultures before infection through 
virulent microbes of the same class gives the white cor- 
puscles an easy victory when the conflict comes and besides 
induces in them a growing disposition to win out in any 
succeeding conflicts.^ 

Serums. The use of serums as a method of cure and to 
produce immunity is another modern practice that should 
be a part of a teacher's general information on the subject 
of the diseases of school children. This is best illustrated 
and most effective in the attack that has been made upon the 
microbe of diphtheria. It is based on the theory that when 
the microbe invades the blood with its toxin a defensive 
substance is produced in the blood serum known as an anti- 
toxin. 

" Microbes of diphtheria are cultivated in a richly nutrient liquid 
which gradually becomes charged with their toxin. The liquid is 

1 Sedgwick : op. cit., pp. 82-84. 



176 Education and the General Welfare 

filtered, and portions of the toxin-bearing filtrate are subcuta- 
neously injected into horses, beginning with small doses and con- 
tinuing until the animal is immune to large doses. Blood is then 
drawn from the immune horse, and the serum from this blood is 
found to contain anti-toxin in abundance. This serum is care- 
fully filtered and then used subcutaneously as a reenforcing rem- 
edy for persons actually ill with diphtheria, or as a preventive 
medicine by those who either may or may not have been ' ex- 
posed ' to it. The results of the serum treatment have every- 
where been most significant and encouraging." ^ 

Lowering of Vital Resistance. Conditions which cause 
a low^ering of vital resistance are wet, cold, insufifiicient sleep, 
worry, insufficient and unsuitable food, and artificial uni- 
form temperature. Among the chief means of increasing 
resistance are sunshine, regular habits, and fresh air usually 
to be had in the fall and winter months only outside of 
schoolrooms and dwelling and business houses. The rela- 
tion between the prevalence of communicable diseases and 
closed windows is clearly indicated in the records that have 
been made of the incidence of these diseases for the months 
of the year. See Charts XIV and XV. 

Seasonal Diseases. These diseases occur most fre- 
quently during the seasons of the year when children stay 
inside on account of the weather and in those years of their 
life when they have not yet formed habits of personal hy- 
giene. Below the school age they live at home and to a 
certain extent in comparative seclusion. During their first 
years in school they mingle freely together and have a com- 
munistic attitude to personal belongings and are perfectly 
innocent of biological cleanliness. There is much borrow- 
ing and lending and the commerce engaged in combines in 

^Sedgwick: op. cit., p. 84. 



The Public School and the Public Health 177 
CHA.RT XIV 



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3 \ 1 LLJJ — 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 M 1 1 M 1 1 



Jan, Feb. Mar. Apr. 



May 



June July 
Months 



Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. 



cases of diphtheria from birth to five years of age. 
cases of diphtheria from five to fourteen years of age. 



(For the years 1 900-1 904 in the U. S. Registration area.) 
Note increase during school months and decrease in vacation. 
(Mass. State Board of Health, Monthly Bulletin, Sept., 1910.) 
The curves in Chart XIV show that diphtheria increases in prevalence from 
October to May, about the time when windows are closed and artificial systems 
of ventilation are in operation. That this fact holds true for other diseases as 
well as diphtheria is shown by the following Chart XV. It is seen here that 
measles show exceptional activity from December to June. 




178 



The Public School and the Public Health 179 

its scope unconsciously a free exchange of the vehicles of 
infection. 

'' All successful commerce is reciprocal and in this universal 
trade in human saliva the fingers not only bring foreign secretions 
to the mouth of their owner, but there, exchanging it for his own, 
distributes the latter to everything that the hand touches. This 
happens not once, but hundreds of times during the day's round of 
a child's activities." ^ 

Of the most important school diseases there is a serum 
treatment for only tv^o, diphtheria and whooping cough. 
For typhoid and small-pox, vaccination has proved an agency 
of prevention. For all the other diseases named here, 
measures of hygiene and sanitation are at present the only 
means of prevention. When any of them makes its ap- 
pearance, isolation of the sick and any others who are likely 
to have taken the infection is the immediate necessity. The 
earlier the symptoms are discovered the better. In fact, in 
nearly all cases when the symptoms are in the more ad- 
vanced stages and unmistakable as indicating serious illness, 
the infection may already have been communicated. This 
has been true particularly of measles. It is almost impos- 
sible to discover the symptoms of this disease in time to 
prevent infection. The best that doctors have been able to 
do is to recognize its coming a few hours ahead by means 
of Koplik's spots — small eruptions which appear inside the 
cheek where the membrane rests against the teeth. 

While it may be well for the teacher to inform herself 
on the characteristic appearance of symptoms through the 
course of these diseases, it must be remembered that her 

1 Quoted from Chapin by Rosenau : " Preventive Medicine and Hy- 
giene." Op. cit., p. 161-162. 



i8o Education and the General Welfare 

chief function is, rather, early discovery and before danger 
of spread of the infection. The following ^ are general 
early symptoms the teacher can be expected to look out 
for: 

I. Indications of fever may mean: chicken-pox, mumps, 
measles, influenza, diphtheria, or scarlet fever. 2. Appear- 
ance of lassitude may mean measles or diphtheria. 3. Vom- 
iting may indicate chicken-pox, mumps, or scarlet fever. 
4. Sore throat may indicate diphtheria or scarlet fever. 5. 
Headache may point to scarlet fever, diphtheria, or mumps. 
6. Eruptions will probably indicate measles, scarlet fever, 
chicken-pox, or small-pox. 7. Malaise may indicate scarlet 
fever, diphtheria, or chicken-pox. 

Influenza. In a report issued by the United States Cen- 
sus Bureau, November 17, 19 18, the following statement 
was made : 

" In forty-six American cities having a combined population of 
only a little more than one-fifth the total for the country, the 
mortality resulting from the influenza epidemic during the nine 
weeks' period ending November 9, was nearly double that in the 
American Expeditionary Forces from the time the first contingent 
landed in France until the cessation of hostilities." 

A study ^ of age distribution of the deaths from this dis- 

iBennett : " School Efficiency," New York, 1917, p. 90-92, Ginn and 
Company. Calvert : " Prevention of Contagious Diseases Among 
School Children," Bulletin Univ. of Missouri, Medical Series, Vol. I, 
No. 3, Hoag and Terman : "Health Work in the Schools," give com- 
plete tabulation of general and specific symptoms, methods of infection, 
and periods of exclusion recommended, pp. 192-195. 

2 Robertson and Koehler : " Preliminary Report on the Influenza 
Epidemic in Chicago," The American Journal of Public Health, Nov., 
1918, pp. 849-856. 



The Public School and the Public Health i8i 

ease and pneumonia in the epidemic in Chicago in the fall 
of 1 91 8 shows that the largest percentage of deaths oc- 
curred in persons between 20 and 40 years and under 10 
years of age. 

The onset of the disease is usually sudden and the symp- 
toms manifested vary greatly in different persons. Even 
a mild attack with a low temperature for only a few days 
had marked and prolonged effects of great variety in dif- 
ferent victims and in many cases produced a profound 
nervous disturbance. The chief danger of the disease lay in 
the sequelae and one of these was frequently pneumonia. 
This complication, it was found, would be just as likely 
to follow a mild as a severe attack. In many respects this 
pandemic opened a new chapter in the mystery of disease. 

Methods of Resistance. The disease was combatted al- 
most entirely by the methods of prevention. In some of the 
cities the boards of health requested the police to arrest all 
" open " coughers or sneezers on streets and in public places 
and to start an anti-spitting crusade. Warnings were issued 
to persons having symptoms of a cold to go to bed at once 
as the best precaution against the disease and as a means of 
isolation. To keep resistance high freedom from worry 
was recommended. A half -teaspoon of soda bicarbonate 
(baking soda) in half a glass of water was recommended 
to be used as a gargle several times a day. A quinine solu- 
tion of two or three grains in a quart of water was also 
recommended to be used in the same way about three times 
a day. In one of the large cities ^ the following measures 
were adopted to prevent the spread of the disease in the 
schools ; and these schools were not closed : 
1 Robertson and Koehler : op. cit. 



1 82 Education and the General Welfare 

1. Open- window ventilation of all classrooms. 

2. Pupils warmly dressed. 

3. Daily thorough inspection of all pupils. 

4. Pupils coughing or sneezing sent home at once. 

Various Signs and Symptoms. The symptoms of an 
ordinary cold with nasal discharge may mean influenza or 
they may be the beginning of whooping cough or measles or 
may suggest diphtheria or scarlet fever. In general, eyes 
that discharge and glueing of the lids and redness under the 
hds, extreme sensitiveness to light, any or all of these justify 
exclusion of the child. Scratching is a sign of itch or of 
pediculosis. In the case of eye diseases the infection is read- 
ily transmitted to other children through towels, wash-basins, 
or handkerchiefs used in common. In the case of pedicu- 
losis, which is surprisingly common in the large cities, con- 
tagion is brought about by an accidental exchange of caps or 
the use of the same clothes hook, or from combs or brushes 
used in common. 

Hygiene and Economy. Physical hygiene is a neces- 
sary measure of economy in the work of the school. What 
effect can the best kind of teaching have if pupils are peri- 
odically absent on account of illness? Absence through 
sickness is as retarding as that from truancy. Besides, the 
school is to be looked upon as in the broader sense one of 
the agencies in the warfare against communicable disease, 
which is not only a local, but a national and an international 
movement. Pasteur said, '^ It is within the power of man 
to rid himself of every parasitic disease." The school must 
teach the theory and demonstrate the practice of hygiene and 
sanitation. 



CHAPTER XII 
Why Children Are Dull 

Chronic Disease and Physical Defects. While in the 
aggregate communicable diseases cause much interruption 
to the work of a school year, they are a hindrance to the 
individual child's progress usually for a limited time only. 
The children afflicted usually recover, return to school, and 
are as bright and capable as before. But there are other 
diseases of a chronic kind and physical defects of a more 
or less permanent character which hinder school work even 
though they may not cause the absence of the children from 
school. These are not ordinarily a menace to the children 
not afflicted and do not require the immediate attention of 
the school officer. They are, however, a great source of 
retardation in that they are a cause of lowered vitality, 
which expresses itself in school work small in amount and 
inferior in quality. 

Levels of Efficiency. Besides, these children are in 
classes with others relatively free from defects, and the most 
serious waste of time results from the fact that children in 
normal condition are held back, must wait and mark time 
until the slower ones catch up with them. This is not all. 
When children, or adults, get into careless habits of not 
working to the limit of their capacity they in time become 
accustomed to a slow rate of advance and a reduced effi- 

183 



184 Education and the General Welfare 

ciency. Unless the school presents a stimulus and an oppor- 
tunity for normal advancement the time spent there may be 
demoralizing and worse than simply wasted. 

The Unwilling and the Incapable. This is the situation 
that brings into being the lazy child, the child that is not 
willing to study because it has no proper motive or stimulus 
and is classed with those who cannot study with any con- 
siderable degree of success. It is not through a vain con- 
sciousness of superiority, it is rather because the bright but 
indolent child in time convinces itself that it is also dull and 
incapable of progress. Teaching how to study is an aid 
to the incompetent but a concession to the indifferent. 

Indifference and Dullness. The indifferent pupil will 
not, the dull pupil cannot do good work in school. The in- 
different become apparently dull and the dull through failure 
become indifferent. Dullness is inability to get the thought 
of another person or of a book. The dull mind exhibits a 
certain degree of impenetrability to influences from without. 
It takes no hints and responds to no suggestions. This is 
the extreme type. There are of course different degrees of 
dullness, but they are in many cases due to the same cause, 
physical defects that interfere with certain of the vital func- 
tions. On the other hand dullness does not necessarily go 
with abnormal physical conditions. The pages of biog- 
raphy are bright with instances of the triumph of the hu- 
man spirit over a constitutional weakness of body. 

However, a knowledge of certain causes of dullness is 
essential to a proper understanding of a teacher's work. 
In the following chart we have at once a list of the defects 
that may occur and an indication of the frequency of their 
occurrence among the number of children examined. 



Why Children Are Dull 185 

CHART XVI 

Physical Examination of School Children, City of Chicago 

(Summary for the years 1909, 1910, 191 1) 
Number of pupils examined 317,603 

Number having physical defects 
Defects found 

Teeth 

Tonsils — hypertrophy of 

Eye — vision impaired 
other defects of 

Glands — enlargement of 

Adenoids 

Nasal breathing impaired 

Anaemia 

Nutrition 

Skin disease 

Ear — hearing impaired 
discharging 

Goitre 

Palate defects 

Orthopedic defects 

Heart disease 

Nervous diseases 

Lung disease 

Rachitic type 

Mentally impaired 

Other defects 8 

Mental Consequences of Physical Defects. Non-com- 
municable diseases and physical defects differ in general 
from those studied in the previous chapter in that these pro- 
duce certain permanent mental dispositions when they 
cannot be relieved or cured. They are all likely to bring 
with them the feeling of inferiority, a lack of the confidence 





Per cent. 


148,297 


46.6 


Number 




116,081 


36.5 


66,939 


21. 1 


52,289 


16.4 


1,376 


.4 


45,043 


14.1 


12,255 


3-8 


14,936 


4.7 


8,251 


2.5 


6,958 


2.2 


5.999 


1-9 


5,705 


1-7 


584 


.2 


1,015 


.3 


1,193 


.4 


2,766 


•9 


1,682 


•5 


1,327 


•4 


751 


.2 


351 


.1 


1,112 


.3 



1 86 Education and the General Welfare 

in the self that is necessary to bring things to pass. Those 
afflicted become accustomed to failure and expect nothing 
else. They lack initiative and become mental dependents. 

Effect of Consciousness of Weakness. In a certain 
class of these weaknesses the children know only the conse- 
quences of unknown causes. Malnutrition, adenoids, etc., 
represent a constant condition, and the children have never 
felt what it is to be well. And it is well that they have not 
come to reflect on their bodily states, for this induces a sort 
of sentimentalism that is but an additional burden. Parents 
or teachers should not speak of children's defects in their 
presence, as this will tend to make these defects an object of 
thought for the children themselves. 

In impaired vision and hearing, children become aware 
of their deficiency by comparison with their classmates 
whose senses bring more clear and correct impressions. In 
certain others such as orthopedic handicaps or motor dis- 
turbances they not alone discover them by comparison with 
other children in plays and games but they may also, by re- 
flection upon them, become painfully conscious of the dif- 
ference between themselves and the great majority of their 
playmates. Peculiarities of gait, posture, or speech may be 
imitated by others and consciousness of them increased to a 
deep-rooted morbidness. 

This is one of the reasons why exceptional children should 
be taught together. In some of the larger cities there are 
special classes for crippled children, for the hard of hearing, 
and hard-of-seeing, as well as for the blind and the deaf, the 
anaemic and the pretuberculous, the retardates and accele- 
rants. 

Medical Diagnosis and Education. Medical inspection 



Why Children Are Dull 187 

in the schools has justified itself not alone on the ground 
of checking epidemic diseases but it has been serviceable 
to parents and teachers in pointing out the need of remedial 
measures for defects in the children which were overlooked. 
The medical diagnosis makes the results of pedagogical tests 
more intelligible. In the following, which is a part of the 
report of the Chief Medical Inspector for the schools of 
Cincinnati, the activities and results of a city medical serv- 
ice are given: 

CHART XVII 

Medical Examination of School Children,^ City of 
Cincinnati 

(September 17, 1915, to June 9, 1916) 

Part I 
Number of Children 

Public Parochial Total 

Inspected after four days' absence 9,888 593 10,481 

Referred to Doctor on account of minor 

conditions 12,565 2,613 15,178 

Examined but not recommended for treat- 
ment 23,082 3,478 26,560 

Needing treatment 1 5,945 2,332 18,277 

Excluded on account of communicable 

disease 1,214 68 1,282 

Vaccinated by district physicians 2,774 1,102 3,876 

Defects and Diseases Diagnosed by District Physicians 

Acute Infectious Diseases (reportable)... 523 37 560 

Defective Vision 1,109 ^88 1,297 

Diseases of the Eye 870 no 980 

Defective Hearing 104 15 119 

1 Eighty-seventh Annual Report Cincinnati Public Schools for the 
year ending August 31, 1916, Cincinnati, 1917, pp. 297-298. 



1 88 Education and the General Welfare 

Public Parochial Total 

Diseases of the Ear 267 29 296 

Defective Nasal Breathing- 140 19 i59 

Hypertrophied Tonsils and Adenoids 974 156 1,130 

Diseases of Respiratory Tract i,494 IM 1.608 

Pulmonary Tuberculosis 3 i 4 

Pre-Tuberculous Children 33 5 38 

Anaemia 205 44 249 

Cardiac Disease 24 6 30 

Defective Teeth 5^144 1.126 6,270 

Ringworm 125 6 131 

Scabies 89 2 91 

Impetigo Contagiosum 222 40 262 

Pediculosis 1,105 165 1,270 

Other Skin Diseases 1,016 91 1,107 

Minor Surgical Conditions 2,090 121 2,211 

Miscellaneous 7^6 79 795 

Total 16,253 2,354 18,607 



Part II 

RESULTS OF SCHOOL MEDICAL EXAMINATION 

Public Parochial Total 

Children who were cured or improved 11,070 1,205 12,275 

Refused treatment 264 47 311 

Withdrawn from school, left city, etc 812 122 934 

Pending cases 3799 958 4,757 

Total 15.945 2,332 18,277 

TREATMENT 

Children treated by general practitioners.. 2,373 366 2,739 
Children treated in clinics, hospitals and 

dispensaries 5.063 498 5,561 



Why Children Are Dull 189 

Public Parochial Total 
Children treated by visiting school nurse. . 3,177 263 3,440 

Total 10,613 1,127 ii>740 

Defective Vision, Diseases of Eye (glasses 

obtained) 807 124 931 

Surgical interference for the removal of 

tonsils and adenoids 632 92 724 

Homes visited by nurse 5^731 922 6,653 

Children taken to clinics, hospitals and 

dispensaries 769 96 865 

School Health Work a Permanent National Service. 

In the discovery and correction of physical defects in school 
children, teachers and health officers both serve the indi- 
vidual child and perform a national service in the physical 
improvement of future citizens. The caiises of rejection 
of recruits for service in the United States army as set forth 
in the Report ^ of the Provost Marshal General of the First 
Draft under the Selective Service Act, 191 7, shov^ a v^ide 
range of imperfection among those who were called to their 
country's defense. The data were obtained from a study of 
10,2^8 cases of rejection taken from eight of the camps. A 
total number of 21 definite causes are given: 

CHART XVIII 
Causes Per cent 

1. Physical undevelopment 4.06 

2. Teeth 8.50 

3- Ear 5.94 

4. Eye 21,68 

1 Report of the Provost Marshal General of the First Draft under 
the Selective Service Act, 1917, p. 47. 



190 Education and the General Welfare 

Causes Per cent 

5. Blood vessels 1.86 

6. Muscles 0.64 

7. Bones 2.96 

8. Joints 3.37 

9. Skin 1. 15 

10. Flat foot 3.65 

11. Underweight 1.59 

12. Tuberculosis 5-37 

13. Heart Diesase 5.87 

14. Hernia 7-47 

15. Digestive System 0.80 

16. Respiratory 1.56 

17. Genito-Urinary (non-venereal) 1.39 

18. Genito-Urinary (venereal) 4-27 

19. Mentally Deficient 4-53 

20. Nervous Disorders (general and local) 3.77 

21. Alcoholism and Drug Habit 0.77 

22. Ill defined and not specified 0.91 

23. Not stated 7-^ 

Defects of the Respiratory System. Among the most 
numerous and distressing of the defects that cause inca- 
pacity in school children are those of the respiratory sys- 
tem. Inspiration and expiration, which together make res- 
piration, are normally carried on through the nose. When 
the nose is obstructed with adenoids or a deflected septum 
the child becomes partially or in toto a mouth-breather. 
The teacher can leave the diagnosis of the real difficulty to 
the medical inspector, the family physician, or the specialist. 
It is sufhcient to know and report that the child does not 
breathe the natural way. If the school is not under a sys- 
tem of medical inspection, the parent can be informed and 
advised to consult the family physician or a specialist. 



Why Children Are Dull 191 

Nasal obstruction may be due to a lack of cleanliness, 
according to Newmayer/ of the Philadelphia schools. Of 
50 pupils sent by him to a nose and throat specialist, only 
nine were found to have adenoids, "' while over half had 
nasal obstruction and mouth-breathing from a lack of clean- 
liness of the nostrils." 

Mouth-breathing produces a condition of the mucous 
membrane peculiarly favorable to the contraction of nasal 
colds and the infection of diseases of the nose and throat. 
It has a disturbing effect upon speech, as the nasal cavity 
is required for the correct production of certain sounds. 
When obstructed, sounds such as n and m cannot be given 
their value. '' Nobody but Miss Nancy " becomes " Do- 
body but Biss Dancy." 

In a large number of cases of adenoid obstruction the 
hearing is also impaired. 39 out of 47 cases examined by 
Blake of Boston showed marked improvement in hearing 
following operation upon the growths. When the condi- 
tion has existed from infancy there is often marked de- 
formity of the chest. It is a known cause of pigeon breast, 
according to Holt. These growths also produce anaemia and 
general malnutrition, owing to constant interference with 
sleep through obstructed respiration, and they may be a 
reflex cause of nervous disturbances, such as chorea, asthma, 
and catarrhal spasm of the larynx. An obstruction suffi- 
cient to cause serious disturbance may be present and yet 
not be noticeable in day time. The condition is in some 
cases indicated only by extreme restlessness at night. Pa- 
tients with adenoid growths contract epidemic respiratory 

iNewmayer: "Medical and Sanitary Inspection of 'Schools," Phila., 
1913, Lea and Febiger. 



192 Education and the General Welfare 

diseases more easily than do others, and under this condition 
these diseases are hkely to be more severe. 

With adenoid growths are to be classed enlargements of 
the neck glands and enlarged tonsils. They are due to a 
common cause, are commonly found together, and are desig- 
nated by the general term '' lymphatism." ^ Enlarged tonsils 
are a source of danger from catarrh and deafness and are 
like adenoid growths in increasing the liability to diphtheria 
and scarlet fever. 

Defects of the Digestive System — The Teeth. It is 
claimed that careful examination of school children will 
reveal that 95 per cent have defective and diseased teeth. 
This is an affliction that is older than history and one that 
seems to keep step with advancing civilization. As indi- 
cated by recovered skulls even pre-historic man had reduced 
posterior molars and was troubled with caries. Nearly all 
animal species and some savage races have strong and beau- 
tiful teeth, although with no other care than what nature 
gives them. Man alone of all animals normally has his 
teeth in a closed series. When the unbroken line is inter- 
rupted by extraction, the troubles of decay and infected 
gums are likely to begin. To bridge the gaps and to crown 
teeth rarely if ever proves sanitary. The worst of it is that 
these devices often only conceal infections which can be 
discovered only by means of the X-ray. In the familiar 
gum-boil the infection exudes to the surface; in other in- 
stances the concealed poison-sack drains continuously into 
the system and becomes an unsuspected cause of disturbances 
in the action of the heart, the kidneys, or other organs. 

1 Holt, L. E. : " Diseases of Infancy and Childhood," New York, 
191 1. 



Why Children Are Dull 193 

Diseased Teeth and Retardation. While there are no 
doubt many exceptions to the rule, it is believed by many 
investigators that there is a close connection between dis- 
eased teeth and mental and physical retardation. In gen- 
eral they lower vitality, which diminishes resistance to dis- 
ease and lowers the efficiency of the school child. Of 3,304 
boys from ten to fourteen years of age examined by Ayres 
in New York, 42 per cent of the dullards and 40 per cent 
of those with average intelligence had defective teeth, but 
only 34 per cent of those classed as bright. The statistics 
of the proportion of school children with defective teeth 
vary greatly, depending on what the examiners count as 
defects. In the Charts of defects given in this chapter the 
percentage of children so afflicted is not too high, the first 
being 36.5 and the second 33.1 of the number examined. 

Brushing and Cleansing the Teeth. The universally 
recommended prophylactic is brushing and cleansing the 
teeth. If there are spaces between the teeth silk floss is 
recommended to keep the surfaces not reached by the brush 
in sanitary condition. The teeth, including the temporary 
set of the very young child, should be examined twice a year 
by a competent dentist. The first permanent molars espe- 
cially should be carefully watched simply because they may 
not be recognized as permanent. The view that the tem- 
porary sets need no attention because they are only tem- 
porary anyway, is a mistaken one. 

Poor general resistance, special susceptibility, form of 
diet, acid in mouth, and bacteria are the usual causes of 
caries. The only means of prevention is to cleanse and 
brush the teeth so as to remove all causes of decay. The 
process of brushing is apparently a very simple one, but to 



194 Education and the General Welfare 

make it really effective medical inspectors have developed 
a careful technique in the matter and in many schools tooth- 
brush drills are given as class exercises. The following is a 
procedure recommended in a recent book on the subject : 

A small amount of precipitated chalk in the palm of one hand 

Touch the chalk with a wet brush 

Brush 

1 up and down the inside of the lower front teeth 

2 right and left side of the lower back teeth 

3 inside of upper front teeth 

4 right and left side of upper back teeth 

5 outside of all teeth brushing up and down 

Brush the teeth at night and rinse the mouth night and morning 
with a teaspoonful of table salt dissolved in a tumbler of warm 
water.^ 

Malnutrition. This is another of the major causes of 
dullness. The human body is normally a self-starting, self- 
running, self-regulating, self-repairing, and at the same 
time a growing machine. Physical defects in one way or 
another interfere with these processes. The free-living 
animal cell, in immediate contact with its environment, takes 
therefrom a certain amount of organic substances and a 
small quantity of inorganic salts as food. It also takes 
oxygen. 

Food is energy-producing fuel. Oxygen is an agent 
of combustion. When the two are brought together the 
product is energy. Now, the mechanism on which they 
depend may not function properly. In a complex organism 
like the human body, the cells are not in immediate contact 

1 Newmayer : " Medical and Sanitary Inspection of Schools," op. cit., 
p. 2 IS. 



Why Children Are Dull 195 

with food and oxygen. These must be brought to the 
cells of four kinds of tissue; the epithelial, representing all 
coverings whether external or internal, the contractile, the 
skeletal, and the nervous, or coordinating, tissues. Malnu- 
trition may have its effect on any of them. The cells lying 
far from the surface require a medium, blood and lymph, to 
bring them food. But food as we know it is not found in 
its simpler elements; the process of its transformation is 
carried on in the digestive organs. This is preliminary to 
assimilation through which the food elements become a 
part of the various cells. 

Malnutrition, therefore, may result from disorders of di- 
gestion or from lack of assimilation. It may be due to an 
insufficient amount of food, to a monotonous or unbalanced 
diet, or to the use of improperly cooked food. It is usually, 
but not necessarily, connected with poverty. The children 
of the well-to-do may also suffer from it. There are statis- 
tics extant to show that the number of school children af- 
flicted may go as high as 30 per cent. It is believed, how- 
ever, that this is much too high for a vast majority of the 
schools. The per cent of cases reported from the list given 
on page 185 is only 2.2. This would probably be much in- 
creased in the congested districts. 

Malnutrition and Dullness. But there can be no mis- 
take that there is a close connection between malnutrition 
and dullness. Dr. Warner found that of 100,000 London 
school children whom he examined 28 per cent of the dull 
pupils were undernourished and about the same per cent 
of the under-nourished were dull. Macmillan and Bodine 
found 54.6 per cent of 2,100 retarded children ill-nourished. 

Rachitic Effects. Malnutrition may be evident in the 



196 Education and the General Welfare 

muscular development or it may appear in the connective or 
skeletal tissue and produce rickets. The skin is usually 
pale and the body thin. This is not always the case, how- 
ever. The rachitic effects are more clearly and unmistak- 
ably manifest in bow-legs, knock-knees, pigeon breast, and 
spinal curvature. 

Spinal curvatures are of three forms : lateral to either side 
and outward and inward. The posture which children must 
assume at school desks unsuited to them accentuates the de- 
fect. Some are predisposed to some form of curvature on 
account of malnutrition before they appear at school. 
The teacher should aim to discover this kind of defect as 
soon as possible. If it is in a mild form care should be 
taken to adjust the desk to the size of the pupil. If the 
case is a marked one it should be referred to the school 
physician. As a matter of 'course all the seats in the school- 
room should be adjusted to the size of the children, only, 
in the cases of spinal defects, it becomes all the more im- 
perative. 

School Feeding. The milder effects of malnutrition are 
general lassitude, dullness of mind and expression, nervous- 
ness, lack of energy and endurance, shortness of breath, and 
listlessness. The work of the school is almost entirely 
wasted on such children. In case it is due to insufficient 
or unsuitable food, school feeding becomes a justifiable 
measure of economy. This is by no means a new idea, for 
the feeding of school children began on the continent of 
Europe as early as 1790, and was introduced into English 
territory when Victor Hugo, for the time being an exile 
in the island of Guernsey, provided warm meals in his house 
for the children of a school near by. In America the date 



Why Children Are Dull 197 

of its beginning was 1855 when the Children's Aid Society 
of New York City began to furnish free lunches for the 
children of the industrial schools. The movement has be- 
come national in scope in all the principal countries of Eu- 
rope, including Finland and Russia. It was first a private 
benefaction, then it became an object of charity organiza- 
tions, and finally in many cities the work vv^as made a part 
of the public educational organization. In most of the 
cities in the United States the boards of education pay for 
the equipment of school lunch rooms out of the public 
funds, but do not provide food. This is undertaken by 
civics leagues, women's clubs, mothers' clubs, or other volun- 
tary organizations. 

In 19 1 3 the school lunch had been introduced in thirty of 
the cities of the country. In the state of Minnesota the 
principle has been extended to the rural schools through 
plans promoted by the Agricultural Division of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota. In the rural districts children usually 
take cold lunches to school to eat them alone and without 
order or ceremony. The new movement has made its be- 
ginning with the simple equipment of a top to an ordinary 
heating stove on which food can be cooked or warmed. 
Providing a fuller equipment would require only a little co- 
operation between the school's manual training and domestic 
science departments. 

Besides supplying well-cooked food which is necessary 
to do good work in the school, lunch, whether supplied by 
the city or the rural school, affords exceptional educational 
opportunities. Not alone is there value in the actual work 
of preparing and serving it, but the whole procedure gives 
opportunity for the study of food values and habituation to 



198 Education and the General Welfare 

table manners and etiquette. This is an excellent method of 
establishing proper ideals of home life in the minds of chil- 
dren who in many instances would have little opportunity 
to learn elsewhere. Besides, it is a way of influencing them 
directly and at once in improved methods of living.^ 

Relieving malnutrition due to insufficient or unsuitable 
food by means of school lunches has justified itself in the 
improved physical condition of the children for whom it was 
intended, in better school work, and in improved behavior. 
Indirecdy, it has proved a means of social culture for all 
the children. 

Impoverished Blood — Anaemia. Although digestive 
disturbances and a poor appetite are nearly always among 
the symptoms of anaemia, it is held that this is a disease or 
defect of the circulatory rather than of the digestive system. 
Its immediate cause is a deficient proportion of red cor- 
puscles. It is in these that the hemoglobin carry the oxygen 
supply from the lungs to the cells of the body and brain. 
The digestive system prepares the nutrient substance. This 
is absorbed by the capillaries in the walls of the stomach 
and intestines and carried by certain veins to the right 
auricle of the heart.^ From there it passes to the lungs for 
oxygen. Now if there is a deficiency in the hemoglobin 
content of the blood, in the proportion of the red corpus- 
cles, an insufficient supply of oxygen is provided for 
the proper combustion of the energy-producing nutrient 
fuel. 

1 Bryant : " School Feeding," Phila., 1914, J. B. Lippincott and Com- 
pany. 

2 Kimber : " Anatomy and Physiology for Nurses," The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1910, Chap. VIII. 



Why Children Are Dull 199 

In a cubic millimeter of the blood there are on an average 
5,000,000 red and 7,000 white corpuscles. The number of 
white varies normally much more than that of red. The 
proportion of the white to the red is from i to 250 up to 
I to 1,000. Sixty per cent of normal hemoglobin content 
is the lowest limit in health. In the more serious degrees 
of anaemia this may go down to thirty per cent. It is the 
function of the white corpuscles, it will be remembered, to 
kill bacteria ; they do this by generating a defensive proteid, 
and by virtue of their power of spontaneous movement they 
creep around bacteria, envelop, and " devour " them. The 
diagnosis of anaemia requires blood tests which a competent 
physician can make without pain or inconvenience to the 
patient. 

Anaemia and Dullness. The anaemic child is incapable 
of sustained effort. Its small store of energy is soon de- 
pleted and the school work done goes forward slowly and 
on a low level of efficiency. Open air conditions in nearly 
all cases bring about much improvement in the vigor and 
alertness of this type of child. 

Sense Defects. While in the infectious diseases there is 
as little primary connection between any two as the species 
of bacteria causing them are distinct and unrelated, in the 
case of physical defects thus far considered there seems to 
be a close relation. With adenoids are to be found symp- 
toms of malnutrition and rickets, with defective teeth mal- 
nutrition, with enlarged cervical glands, adenoids, with all 
obstruction in the nose and throat, defective hearing. All 
the physical defects seem rather closely correlated except 
diseases of the eye. Defects of vision are not, like those of 
hearing, a result of these constitutional disorders, they are 



200 Education and the General Welfare 

rather to be classed with disturbances of a nervous charac- 
ter but not such as predispose to mental dullness. 

That there is nothing in the mind that was not before in 
the sense is an old pedagogical dictum that makes sense de- 
fects an obvious cause of mistaken impressions from the 
external world. When the senses give no reports, or wrong 
reports, of the environment, the mind must be poorly or 
imperfectly furnished. Considering the number of children 
affected, weakness of hearing and vision form two of the 
most important defects in school children. 

Hearing. In certain respects hearing, however, is of 
higher educational value than certain other senses, at least 
impaired hearing is a greater hindrance to educational prog- 
ress for the reason that the highly valuable agency of 
language is interfered with. And deafness means social 
isolation, to a large extent, with its consequent psychic 
effects. 

From the statistics gathered by investigators, it is as- 
sumed that from lo to 20 per cent of school children have 
defective hearing to some degree. About half the cases 
are due to heredity. The other half are usually the conse- 
quences of one or another of the well-known infectious dis- 
eases and the equally well-known defects of the nose and 
throat. 

Hearing Test. The most generally approved test for 
hearing is the whispering test, the examiner using his re- 
sidual air to produce the whisper. The pupil examined 
stands with his back to the examiner and 20 feet away while 
an assistant closes each of the pupil's ears in succession by 
pressing his finger firmly on the tragus. If the whisper is 
inaudible to the pupil, the voice of the examiner will be 



Why Children Are Dull 201 

raised to a forced whisper, to ordinary voice, or to loud 
voice, as may be necessary.^ 

Impaired Hearing and Dullness. The relation of im- 
paired hearing to dullness is shown by the results of investi- 
gations made. The proportion of partially deaf children in 
the schools of Camden, New Jersey,^ was found to be 50 
per cent greater among those retarded than among those 
who were up to grade. Of 5,005 Philadelphia school chil- 
dren 3,587 who were excused from final examination on 
the basis of good work had defects of hearing only half as 
frequently as the 1,418 non-exempt. These are selected 
and representative statistics of many that are available and 
they indicate what is naturally to be inferred, that retarda- 
tion is closely related to defects of hearing. 

Symptoms of Defective Hearing. The symptoms of 
defective hearing in children are unmistakable. As it is 
often accompanied by obstructed breathing, it is character- 
ized by the facial expression that goes with that ailment. 
The voice is characteristic usually in the most severe cases. 
In children there is much wandering of attention because 
they are not in full mental connection with what goes on. 
Speech is imperfect because imperfectly heard forms are 
accepted as correct and used. 

About the only immediate help a teacher can give a pupil 
who is hard of hearing is to seat him advantageously. By 
far the most common of the acute diseases of the ear is 
inflammation of the middle ear. When ear trouble is of 

1 This follows paragraph 39, General Order No. 66, U. S. Rules 
for the Physical Examination of Recruits, quoted by Rosenau : " Pre- 
ventive Medicine and Hygiene," op. cit., p. 1194. 

2 Terman : " Hygiene of the School Child," p. 224. 



202 Education and the General Welfare 

long standing it is usually very difficult to cure. It is im- 
perative that a child afflicted in this way be sent as soon as 
possible to a specialist for diagnosis and treatment. 

Vision. The states of Connecticut, Vermont, Colorado, 
and Massachusetts recjuire teachers to examine the eyes of 
the pupils. Vermont and Massachusetts include tests for 
hearing in the requirement. In 552 cities in the United 
States vision and hearing tests are given by the teachers. 
The formal regulations are usually printed with detailed 
instructions as to the method of procedure. Test cards are 
provided and it is claimed by authorities that teachers not 
only can but that they should do this work, for they should 
have this means of learning something about the vision of 
pupils. However, the card tests must be regarded as pre- 
liminary with those having defects. They must be advised 
to consult competent specialists. On the other hand, if the 
card tests are to decide finally, many a pupil will seem to 
have perfect vision with their use and go on suffering with 
headache and other nervous symptoms. Newmayer claims 
that it is almost impossible to diagnose the kind of ametro- 
pia present except when the child is under a mydriatic and 
the oculist uses instruments of precision, such as the retino- 
scope and the ophthalmoscope. " Under skilled examina- 
tions the hyperopes (far-sighted) ^ vary from 75 to 85 per 
cent of the defects found." That is, near-sight is not as 
common as was supposed, for it averages less than 20 per 
cent of the defects diagnosed. Of 3,397 children examined 
under a mydriatic, Wessells found 70 per cent hyperopic, 12 
per cent myopic (near-sighted), 9 per cent with mixed astig- 

1 Newmayer : " Medical and Sanitary Inspection of Schools," op. cit., 
p. 186. 



Why Children Are Dull 203 

matism (refractive error due to unequal curvature of the 
eye), and 9 per cent anisometropic (eyes differing in kind 
of refractive error) } Available statistics indicate that 10 to 
30 per cent of the children in school have defective vision. 
In a class of forty children one might therefore expect to 
find from four to twelve pupils with corrected or uncor- 
rected vision. Vision is commonly tested by the Snellen 
test card. This can be purchased at 'trifling expense. The 
lines of letters of different size are marked to be read at 
distances of 20, 30, 40, etc., feet. The child does not face 
the light. One eye is tested at a time while the other is 
covered with a piece of cardboard. Ability to read a ma- 
jority of the letters is accepted as satisfactory. 

Symptoms of Eye Strain. Newmayer regards the ordi- 
nary method of observing signs and symptoms of eye-strain 
as fairly reliable for any one not trained in the use of 
instruments of precision. The following is a list of the 
symptoms that an observant teacher, by her continuous 
presence with the pupils at work, can readily discover : — 
Squinting; wrinkling of the forehead; peculiar head pos- 
tures; holding book near the eyes; headaches in the front, 
temples, or base of the head ; nausea, especially when riding 
in the cars; twitching of muscles of the forehead or face 
resembling chorea; difficulty in reading from the black- 
board; congested eyes; sensitiveness to light; holding book 
farther from the eyes than is normal; blurring of letters; 
double vision; deficiency in reading writing; lack of con- 
centration. 

Standard Size of Letters. The campaign against eye- 
strain has resulted in the general acceptance of standards 
1 Newmayer : op. cit. 



204 Education and the General Welfare 

of type to be used in school books.^ The minimum standard 
for the first year books is : 

Size of type — 2.6 millimeters; 
width of leading — 4.5 millimeters as 
shown in this example. 

For the second and third year : 

Size — 2 millimeters; width of leading — 
4 mm., as shown in this example. 

For fourth year : 

Size — 1.8 mm.; width of leading — -3.6 mm., as 
here exemplified. 

Conservation of Vision in School. There are many 
more pupils with defective vision in the schools than there 
are with defective hearing, although the deaf outnumber the 
blind in the schools reported by the U. S. Commissioner of 
Education. In the larger cities where the number seems to 
justify the arrangement, those pupils who are not blind but 
whose vision is so seriously impaired as to make them a spe- 
cial problem in the regular classes, are taught together under 
conditions specially favorable to the conservation of vision. 

Speech Defects. These are to a considerable extent re- 
lated to many of the defects already discussed. Certain of 
the forms they may take are also closely connected with 
nervousness. Palatal defects, if severe, such as cleft palate, 
will be readily noticeable in speech. The expiring breath 
which must be depended upon for the enunciation of the 

iShaw : "School Hygiene," The Macmillan Company. New York, p. 178. 



Why Children Are Dull 205 

sounds of language is diverted in the cavity of the cleft. 
Correct speech is dependent upon normal conditions in lips, 
teeth, tongue, palate, throat, nostrils, and nerve centers. 
The most common of the speech defects found among school 
children are hesitating speech, habitual carelessness in ren- 
dering the speech sounds, stammering, of which lisping is 
one of the forms, and stuttering. 

In stammering the child is incapable of making certain 
sounds correctly; for instance th is substituted for .y as in 
the lisp, or k may take the place of sh. This defect is sug- 
gestive of arrest of development from the time of the true 
stammer, a period through which every child passes in the 
early acquisition of speech. 

On the other hand, the stutterer can pronounce all the 
sounds, but not at all times. A sudden interruption of the 
speech mechanism occurs at the beginning of words or ac- 
cented syllables through a diversion of the available nervous 
energy from the vocal and respiratory elements of speech to 
accessory movements. In severe cases the misdirected 
energy may overflow beyond these movements and affect 
the whole body. A large proportion of the cases of stutter- 
ing occur before the age of six and nearly all the remainder 
before the age of fourteen. In a recent study of speech 
defects among 89,057 school children of St. Louis, the grade 
distribution of the lispers (stammerers) and stutterers was 
as indicated in the following graph. Chart XIX, next page. 

The total number of speech defectives among school chil- 
dren from several extensive investigations range in America 
from 2.2 to 2.8 per cent, 2.5 being a fair average. Of those 
who stutter the range is from a little over a half per cent 
to one and a half, with an average of about 0.9 per cent. 



2o6 Education and the General Welfare 

CHART XIX 
Grade Distribution of Lispers and Stutterers ^ 



a.05fc 


/ 


\ 






















3.0^ 


/ 


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\ 






















2.5^ 




\ 
























\ 






















2.0^ 


,---' 


\\ 
























\ 
\ 

\ 


\ 




















1.5^ 




\ 
\ 
\ 

\ 


\ 


/ 


s, 


















\ 
\ 

\ 


..\ 


// 


x\ 






.^ 


\ 








1.0^ 






/ 


<, 




V 





^•^ 


\ 
\ 


/ 


\ 




/ 


^^ 


■^ 




\ 


.\ 






\ 


^'"^ 




\^- 


'i'/ 


/ 




/ 


\, 




' 


V 


^ 


/" 


\ 


k 


\ 




/ 

• 




/ 


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^ 






y 

r 






\ 














/ 




















^ 


■^ 



Gr.Kg. I II HI lY V VI VII VIII HS I U III lY 

No. 
Lispers Boys 852 Stutterers Boys 492 



Lispers Girls 596 Stutterers 



Girls 191 



1 J. E. W. Wallin in G^rnd Rep. Supt. St. Louis Public Schools, 1916, 
pp. 174-211. 



Why Children Are Dull 207 

Speech Defects and Retardation. All the reports of 
investigations agree that speech defects are closely corre- 
lated ziith retardation. This is due to the fact that for a 
considerable proportion of those afflicted the defect mani- 
fested in speech is but one of many causes common to an 
inferior heredity. In other cases the defect is aggravated 
by a sensitive reaction to social experience, whatever its 
cause may be; the child is often imitated and made self- 
conscious of his difficulty. Teachers do not like to call on 
those who stutter for in reciting in class they are almost 
certain to exhibit the defect. This may create a laugh and 
it invariably detracts the attention of the pupils from the 
matter in hand. Hence the stutterer is to a large extent 
cut off from full participation in the work of the school. 

Cure of Speech Defect. Stuttering is curable in 80 per 
cent of the cases. The percentage rises higher under the 
most skillful treatment. Lisping is not so complicated as 
stuttering and yields as a rule more readily to treatment in 
the case of children who are otherwise normal. In the 
larger cities the special classes or schools in which the chil- 
dren can be kept all day have, it seems, proved the most suc- 
cessful in curing the defect. Whether the defect can be 
cured in any individual cases depends on the instructor, the 
child, and the severity of the defect. In all cases of the 
stammering or lisping type, the regular teacher can do much 
by means of articulation drills, where special classes are 
not available. Stuttering may have nervous complications 
which are hard to reach. Affections due to it disappear 
as soon as a cure takes place. 

Mental Types of Stutterers. Two types of mental dis- 
positions are recognized in those who stutter. There are 



2o8 Education and the General Welfare 

those who exercise undue haste in speecli in an effort to side- 
track the difficulty. They are active and alert minded, talk 
much, and stutter at intervals. The other type is shy and 
silent, repressing speech altogether as much as possible. 
They avoid occasions that require speech, hence they become 
unsociable and lonely, acquiring a disposition somewhat akin 
to that of those who are cut off from social intercourse on 
the passive side of speech through the loss of hearing. And 
yet there is still another type, those who are perfectly normal 
in all other respects and who would be readily curable with 
proper drill in articulation along with a regulated breathing 
such as every one who speaks normally exemplifies; a quick 
inspiration is followed by slow expiration in regular uninter- 
rupted speech, sufficient breath being taken in to support 
and regulate the outflow in continuous speech. 

Summary. The aims of education are to a certain ex- 
tent defeated on the part of the child through 

1. Communicable disease, on account of temporary in- 
terruptions of school work and possible consequences in per- 
manent impairment of sense organs or other powers. 

2. Mental incompleteness, which involves all the degrees 
of feeblemindedness and border line cases manifested by 
extreme retardation. 

3. Mental limitations due to physical defect. 

4. Nervousness due to reflex irritation from physical de- 
fects, of which defective vision is the clearest example. 



CHAPTER XIII 
Original Assets of Character 

By Way of Transition. In the light of what is to follow 
the preceding chapters give a view of the conditions which 
are preliminary to the teacher's success. Buildings and 
grounds, for instance, are equipped and made sanitary, at- 
tractive, and comfortable. If, to begin with, such primary 
matters are not properly attended to, no blame can rest on 
the teacher. Again, if a child is mentally deficient or suffers 
from physical defects that hamper school progress, these 
also are causes beyond the teacher's control. Now, how- 
ever, in this and succeeding chapters, we come to a place 
where the teacher assumes large responsibilities. 

In the management of the school and the actual training 
of the children the field of endeavor is peculiarly the teach- 
er's own. In this, the proper work of the school, all other 
appointees of the system, the superintendent and the board 
of education with their numerous official helpers, the medi- 
cal supervisors, and the janitors — the work of all of them 
is only preliminary or accessory to the actual work done by 
the teacher with the children. She may secure the advice 
of friends, parents, principals, and others, consult books for 
principles of guidance, but the final responsibility is her own. 

Pupil Management. Having her pupils under daily ob- 
servation, the teacher has a peculiar advantage in the study 
of her work over practitioners in other professional fields. 

209 



210 Education and the General Welfare 

But pupil management is a difficult problem and school 
government sometimes turns out to be teacher management 
by the pupils. Just as in the home it may happen that 
children have a shrewder sense of the gentle means of con- 
trol over the parents than the parents have over the children. 

The Child's Initial Equipment. As a means of exer- 
cising a wise control over children, it is well to assume that 
on their first appearance at school they bring a certain equip- 
ment of powers. It is a reasonable and business-like pro- 
cedure to take stock in a general way of what each child 
c^n do before the school work begins. 

In the first place, he brings an equipment of health which 
must in no way be impaired. He has had much experience 
in the exercise of the senses and is still fond of using these 
natural avenues of information in regard to the qualities of 
objects. He has learned the intricate mechanism of a lan- 
guage and speaks probably in accordance with correct gram- 
mar and with a nicety of pronunciation that is surprising 
for one who is practically self-taught. All his attainments 
have come to him with Httle conscious effort in his self- 
instituted school of play. He has exercised a daring fancy 
with the limited data derived from experience ever since he 
heard his first story, thus bringing into being a rich imagi- 
nary world of his own. We may well wonder whether he 
will advance as rapidly with us in the school as he did 
when by himself. 

Furthermore, the child comes to school with a certain 
degree of moral development. This fact it is also necessary 
to take into account. The school is not the place to build 
character out of nothing. It is the place to guide and form 
the promising beginnings. If young children are not moral. 



Original Assets of Character 211 

it is because they are unmoral, not immoral. If children 
are old enough and are immoral, the public school is not the 
place for them. Its function is not restorative in either 
health or morals. It is neither a sanitarium nor a house of 
correction. 

But the school must preserve the moral as well as the 
physical health. Without health, educational values are 
lost and v^ithout morals they are perverted. But while 
health, mind, and morals are separately conceivable, in real- 
ity the mind acts as a unit. There is a hygiene of the men- 
tal and the moral life. Also, the will takes part in an act 
of thought as well as in emotional and physical control. 

Accordingly, in the following pages artificial distinctions 
between the moral and the other factors of the mind will as 
far as possible be avoided, and the view will be maintained 
that there is a hygiene of native impulses, of emotional con- 
trol, and of mental and social development. 

Original tendencies that are favorable to the development 
of character are manifest in the child from the beginning. 
That they may be stifled and perverted and bear evil fruit 
is possible, but if opportunities are offered in time for their 
exercise in the right direction they can produce only good 
results. Signs of mental as well as physical health are mani- 
fested by normally constituted children. They are naturally 
endowed with tendencies that conserve mental integrity. 
To recognize their value in the school and the home is a 
measure of good management and economy. 

The Impulse to Act. The normal child manifests an 
active attitude.^ In early life the field of association, de- 

1 Burnham : " Mental Health for School Children," Mental Hygiene, 
Vol. II, January, 1918, pp. 19-22. 



212 Education and the General Welfare 

liberation, and analysis is relatively limited; but the paths 
to impression and response are wide open. Normal de- 
velopment of the higher powers depends on normal exercise 
of impression and response. Children come to school to do 
things. Unless they are usefully employed they are likely 
to get into mischief. The teacher should not regard this as 
an indication that they are trying her patience or wish her 
ill. They simply feel an abundance -of energy which seeks 
expression. This condition is not to 'be confused with the 
chronic nervousness to be described in another chapter. 
There is here no abnormal alertness of a wavering attention. 
To manifest an active attitude is consistent with the power 
to concentrate attention upon any object of interest, whether 
it be a bear-story or a ball. 

The Impulse to Resist. This is also a form of activity 
of the normal mind. It is indispensable to the moral life. 
The sense of individuahty cannot round itself into form 
without exercise of the powers of resistance. In early life 
the impulse is a necessary means to learn the distinction 
between the " me " and the '' not-me." In the moral char- 
acter of adult life it makes clear the difference between 
what one stands for and what he opposes. To stand for 
something means to oppose something else. Men become 
great through resistance to forces that hinder and oppose. 
Without this impulse the issues of life become obscured and 
personality becomes weak and colorless. 

However, action is the normal result of the impulse. But 
this may lead to extremes of conduct. The remedy still is 
action, not inaction and repression, but action diverted from 
the original cause of offense. The mother or teacher for 
whom a child becomes violently agitated through opposition 



Original Assets of Character 213 

to its wishes, does well to divert the attention to something 
else that also requires resistant action. The school boy on 
the playground who was kept from his chance at the swing 
and therefore became very angry, did well to give vent to his 
passion by climbing a pole. He relieved the tension by giv- 
ing it an outlet through muscular action. Otherwise it 
would have short-circuited and caused nervous strain. 

The results of repression may be noted in the subdued and 
morbidly sensitive bearing of children in whom every whim- 
per of opposition is always immediately crushed by arbi- 
trary force. Intense feelings harbored in silence produce' 
unbalanced tendencies and maladjustments to the demands 
of normal life. In adjusting differences between pupils, 
or between the teacher and a pupil, the tension may be re- 
lieved by talking the matter out together and thus arriving at 
an understanding all around. Facing a situation frankly 
and in an active way drains off the dead weight of inter- 
fering repressed emotions and restores the power of normal 
response. 

Another favorable sign in children is the tendency to dis- 
pel feelings of ill-zdll. The normal child lives so intensely 
in the present that the emotions attendant upon experiences 
are relatively discontinuous and short-lived. Young chil- 
dren naturally live by the injunction, " Let not the sun go 
down on your wrath." It is a matter of surprise and won- 
derment among them to learn how long their elders can be 
" mad " and pass without speaking. It is known that chil- 
dren note and talk about quarrels of long standing and in 
time come to admire the attitude and try hard to imitate it 
as a sign of strength of character. When children quarrel 
in school, and it is not necessarily a bad sign if they do, the 



214 Education and the General Welfare 

teacher should look for opportunities to have them meet in 
common play or work in such a way that the disturbed feel- 
ings will soon be dissipated. Signs of coolness and dissen- 
sion between their teachers in the same room or building 
are likely to be harmfully suggestive. 

The impulse to render service is commonly manifested by 
children of school age. They delight in activities that are 
of value to the teacher or the school. The tendency is so 
strong that asking a child to do something, run an errand, 
open or close a window, take care of a plant, or assist the 
teacher in other ways, has the effect of bestowing a reward 
for good behavior. The service is free and voluntary, and 
to be valuable this must be so. The greatest service that 
has ever come to humanity was ever rendered without 
money and without price. Children should have opportuni- 
ties to give expression to this impulse so that it may not be 
an unknown experience in later life. The commercial in- 
terest will come soon enough, without anticipations and 
promptings through money rewards often given in the home 
for a trifling service. It is a part of the training in citizen- 
ship to learn to think of political service to the country as of 
a kind that is fundamentally a free-will offering and not an 
opportunity to make money. It should be an experience 
not unknown to the child in relation to the home and the 
school before the duties of citizenship are formally assumed. 

The impulse to take the initiative and assume respofisibil- 
ity is another sign of mental health. If the teacher and 
parent would have the character of the child develop in a 
normal way this impulse must not be repressed. There is 
no trait more common nor more interesting in young chil- 
dren than their purposeful readiness to act. They are al- 



Original Assets of Character 215 

ways willing to go ahead and produce results and eager to 
accept responsibility for them. When anything is to be 
undertaken to do the parent hears the insistent " Let me " 
and when it is finished and the results can be exhibited the 
satisfied ego says, '' I did that." The few scrawls that 
represent a drawing that perhaps an artist would hesitate to 
undertake are handed around with admirable assurance and 
without a commentary of excuses on account of the diffi- 
culties of the subject. 

Clearly as w^e recognize this characteristic of childhood, 
just so certainly do we witness its gradual disappearance in 
the years of school life. The child becomes a part of the 
school machinery, lessons are assigned, tasks are imposed, 
and a routine is established that makes no allowance for a 
child's initiative and tends to reduce all individualities to a 
common level. Some children become so habituated to 
having others plan their activities that they become uncertain 
of means to ends and awkward in the use of means decided 
upon. The school experience often establishes an attitude 
of concern about the consequences to the self and self-con- 
scious incompetence leads to an unwillingness to assume re- 
sponsibility for any undertaking. On the other hand, to 
induce a self-conscious feeling of superiority through re- 
peated comment on a child's excellence in his presence is also 
an unfavorable result of school training. The child should 
not get into the habit of comparing himself with other 
children. It is better to direct the mind to results achieved 
or to be achieved than to contemplation of the personal quaH- 
ties of the self. 

It is a normal impulse of children to seek companionship 
with those of their own age. At first it is an expedient to 



2i6 Education and the General Welfare 

further the play activity. To play alone makes demands of 
imaginative powers that some children do not possess. The 
only child, or the only small child in a family, may supply 
an imaginary companion for a real one which circumstances 
have denied him. But all normal children seem to prefer a 
playmate in flesh and blood. They like to go to school be- 
cause of the other children, like to read books about children 
of their own age in their own or other lands. There is no 
better means of all-around character development than is 
offered by association in free play at school. Here if the 
teacher remains somewhat in the background the give and 
take of strenuous play will weaken conventional inhibi- 
tions and all kinds of impulses will come to the surface. 
Along with free activity comes exercise of judgment of how 
to act and how to resist aggression, and primary lessons of 
justice taught by the reactions of the group to unworthy 
conduct induce a growing sense of moral responsibility. 

In the course of time there develops a strong desire for 
the approval of the group. If a child manifests a feeling 
of aloofness from a sense of intellectual or social superiority, 
we have an unpromising symptom. This is not a normal 
tendency; an aristocratic feeling must be artificially im- 
planted by parents, it is not a natural growth. When the 
higher plane of development has been reached, the approval 
of the group will serve the needs of government and disci- 
pline just as public opinion in the larger sense controls the 
destinies of a free state. And the capable manager of a 
school will make use of it, will not violate the child's sense 
of justice and fair play by unreasonable and arbitrary de- 
cisions in regard to the conduct of any pupil. 

Out of the impulse to seek companionship comes also the 



Original Assets of Character 217 

desire to cooperate for any common good. When children 
have learned how to play together they will also know how 
to work together. They will learn to be leaders and fol- 
lowers. Since in companionship the impulse is to be with 
those of their own age, it is best if their teachers do not act 
as leaders among them. This principle controls in the kin- 
dergarten where the director plays as one of their number. 
As the children grow older the teacher should withdraw 
more and more into the background and let them as far as 
possible plan and carry out their own enterprises. In the 
higher grades the pride of the group in matters of honor 
or achievement becomes a strong force in discipline. And 
this is training in democracy and community life. It is a 
way to nourish the growth of social ideals which in mature 
life will demand the best attainable for the city, the state, 
and the nation. 

The natural hunger of the senses is one of the forces of 
training that, strange to say, is often forgotten. The ordi- 
nary schoolroom offers little satisfaction to the eager curi- 
osity of the child. It is bare of real objects. There are a 
few books and maps and perhaps pictures but these are ab- 
stractions compared with growing, living things. When we 
accept the view that there is nothing in the mind that was 
not first in the senses, we can believe that empty-headedness 
is demoralizing; for the too limited data of experience lead 
to over-elaboration, which is a fruitful source of superstition 
and of false and evil ideas of life. It also induces in chil- 
dren a premature inward turn to the mind on the states of 
the self. 

" We believe it is not well for little children of six to be set down 
in rows of wood and iron seats and bidden to fold their hands, face 



2i8 Education and the General Welfare 

front, look at the teacher, wait for the teacher's direction, do noth- 
ing except as the teacher bids them, and reduce themselves as 
promptly as possible to a very close likeness to those wooden and 
iron seats in which they sit." ^ 

" Many teachers who believe that learning and doing go together 
have put forth great efforts to make their schoolrooms veritable 
laboratories in which the material and the tools used prove that 
experimentation has an important place in all of their plans. One 
of these wise teachers of first-grade children says that she wants 
her children to know that the world is full of interesting things to 
be done, and she wants them to be able to fill their time with good 
work without the what and when always coming from somebody 
else." 2 

A desire to get on, to make appreciable progress, is an- 
other normal sign. Children must feel that they are going 
on or they will be oppressed by monotony. The younger 
they are, the less can their attention sustain itself on minute 
analysis. There must be signs of progress in the number of 
pages covered and the succession of points considered. 
When the teacher makes a reasonable adjustment to this 
demand of the nature of her children she is not likely to 
fall into the error of too slow and too thorough. There is 
danger in the motto, '' Not how much but how well " as 
related to young children in school. Years ago when this 
was applied to teaching reading thoroughly for perfect ex- 
pression and weeks and even months were spent on a teach- 
er's favorite classic and her ideals of elocution, the time de- 
voted to the subject was largely wasted and led to disgust for 
the performance with no real gain in the power to use 

1 In Report of Third Annual Meeting National Council of Primary 
Education, Bulletin No. 26, 1918, U. S. Bureau of Education, pp. I3-I5- 

2 Op. cit., p. 196. 



Original Assets of Character 219 

books. There is a limit beyond which drill on a subject 
will simply no longer " take " as shown by the fact that the 
children will make the same errors over and over in spite 
of the efforts of the overworked teacher. In errors in Eng- 
lish, for instance, instead of harping on all the errors made 
all the time, it is much better to take one at a time and thus 
create the impression of going on from one to the next until 
the whole matter is covered. 

Among the older children there is a normal desire 
for completed action, a mental satisfaction in feeling, 
''Well, that is done; now for something else." It is 
undesirable to assign a lesson too long to com- 
plete within the time allowed. And repeatedly to take the 
same lesson over undermines the will to work. The lessons 
have to be planned so that the unit assigned can be satis- 
factorily covered. And when a lesson has been assigned it 
is important that every pupil have an opportunity to render 
a part in the final account, to take part in the concluding 
act, the recitation or report. When children or even older 
students are not called on to recite what they have learned, 
they will not long be faithful to their studies. They like to 
finish what they begin. In the higher grades a day may 
pass without calling on some of the pupils, but this should 
not happen below the seventh grade. 

Closely related to the foregoing is a desire for residts 
of a sensible kind. It is too much to expect that an ele- 
mentary or high school pupil will act on the principle that 
either learning or virtue is its own reward. They require 
some tangible or visible evidence of success in their studies. 
This may take the form of an exhibition of work done, a 
certificate, a mark in the form of a grade, or some other 



220 Education and the General Welfare 

token. It is unnecessary to argue that this is a perfectly 
normal trait, for the same rule holds in general of all per- 
sons, old or young. All require some evidence of success 
that is generally appreciable. The good that one gets out of 
a course of study as a reward, regardless or in spite of the 
marks received, is an ideal toward which all should strive; 
but no teacher in any grade of school is justified in assum- 
ing that it exists in any student. Even though a student 
does not succeed, he desires some indication of the extent 
of his success or failure. 

The impulse to strive is a most marked and interesting 
characteristic of childhood. It is a peculiarly human trait. 
Heredity has fixed the extent to which animals may rise; 
man has risen against the force of gravity and lifts his head 
toward the stars. No one can predict the direction or 
extent of man's future achievements. The impulse mani- 
fests itself early, for instance, in the infant's strenuous ef- 
forts to hold itself erect. These early steps in development 
are the aspiring kind, not done to win over another nor to 
gain honor or respect, but to outdo a former achievement. 
Although no moral motives are attributable to it, this high- 
est form of striving is common among children. As beat- 
ing one's own record is a high form of striving, emulation 
simply to win over some perhaps hated rival is a low and un- 
social form of the same impulse. Ambition, '' the last in- 
firmity of noble minds," in which social approval is the 
satisfaction sought is also lower than aspiration purely for 
personal excellence. This is the ideal that must be held 
uppermost in school life. It will not be necessary to try 
to do away with all rivalry. Competition is a wholesome 
stimulus in play and work. However, striving should have 



Original Assets of Character 221 

its final illustration in the effort to improve one's own record. 

It is familiar to all how well athletic games foster the im- 
pulse to strive and how little strenuous effort ordinary men- 
tal work in school calls forth. This should all be changed. 
There should be contests in skill, powers of analysis, and 
endurance in the intellectual field as well as in the physical. 
If there were goals set in the effort to sit still and concen- 
trate attention to a chapter in a difficult book, the young 
mind would be eager to respond. It is seldom that one 
hears a teacher tell children how they shall treat their minds 
to make them grow strong and how they may dissipate their 
energies. But this is just as much in place as to tell them 
how to make their bodies strong. If definite goals adjusted 
to their stage of advancement are set in the mental field 
they will take pleasure in striving to reach them. And 
there will be no more danger of overstrain than in physical 
games, because in intellectual striving the impulse is also a 
natural one and a sign of healthy functioning. 

The Direction of Development. In all the normal ten- 
dencies enumerated in this chapter growth- is by activity 
from within outward. This is true whether the goal of 
effort is physical or mental, whether the exercise is a foot- 
race or a spelling-match. In either type of exercise, whether 
it be a test of mind or body strength, the attention is focused 
beyond the self; it absorbs the powers of the self, is not 
divided between the self and another object. There is no 
clearer picture of the healthy functioning of the mental 
powers than the activities of a normal child of pre-school 
age. It is the part of school management to foster develop- 
ment in the same direction as the child continues its progress 
through the grades. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Problem of the Emotions 

Study of the Emotions. The emotional Hfe is the 
fundamental determiner of character. We differ from one 
another in the number and variety of emotional responses, 
in their strength, and in the objects which are capable of 
arousing them. This is where lie the more striking as well 
as the finer shades of difference between individuals. A 
study of this difference in school children is within the 
peculiar province of school management. The grades of 
intelligence determine the curriculum and the methods of 
teaching; a knowledge of the emotional character of the 
children is the means of solving the problems of constructive 
discipline. 

This is a difficult subject and there are no general rules 
of procedure. In dealing with children the teacher has, 
however, one advantage; they are as yet plastic and their 
emotional life is not covered up with a mass of social inhi- 
bitions which grow with age. But, on second thought, this 
is only relatively true. Children of the same age will re- 
veal different degrees of the power of self-control. As they 
come to school on the first day they will respond in various 
ways to the new- situation. As time wears on and the 
feeling of familiarity with the surroundings weakens the 
acquired inhibitions of behavior, more marked differences 

222 



Problem of the Emotions 223 

will appear and new qualities of character will emerge. 
Some habitually show a tendency to think before they make 
a decision while others are impulsive. Some like to be con- 
spicuous, others do not care to shine. Some profit by the 
mistakes they make, others repeat the same errors. Some 
are always eager to learn more, others are self-satisfied. 
Some seem self-possessed, generous, sympathetic, respect- 
ful, interested in their work, while others may be self-con- 
scious, self-willed, morose, or they may exhibit other marked 
characteristics. 

But however varied these manifestations may be, it is 
important to have in each child an emotive basis. The 
work of the school can be efifective only when it can be made 
to spring from within, from the inner driving power of 
desire to be and to do. Many a child outwardly unpromis- 
ing may be touched with an enthusiasm for high ideals. 
Strong emotions if not under control may be inconvenient 
and hard to manage in a schoolroom, but it should be borne 
in mind that the great achievements of the human race do 
not issue from a shallow emotional life. Much depends 
upon the impulses from within. These must first be pres- 
ent and then put under control by being directed upon a 
proper object. Given a capacity for emotions in any child, 
we can assume a source of power which will impel all the 
activities of the self. When not so excessive as to cloud the 
consciousness, emotions are individualizing processes ; the 
ego is always sure of itself; it always knows who loves or 
hates or hopes or fears, and usually the object is equally 
clear. School management means providing opportunities 
for the self to become engaged with proper objects. When 
it repeatedly succeeds in this, the emotions are cultivated and 



224 Education and the General Welfare 

character is formed. This is fundamental to the aim of 
education; it is to the hfe of the spirit what health is to the 
body. 

Personal Reactions. Whatever characteristics children may re- 
veal, it is to be assumed that teachers are not to be governed by 
their own personal reactions to the behavior of the pupils. The 
question whether one form of conduct or another is desirable de- 
pends on its effect on the child's own development and that of other 
children. Nothing is forbidden by the teacher because " I do not 
like it " but because society has thrown restraints on certain forms 
of conduct. One must not get the illusion that only the pupils who 
are personally agreeable will profit by the opportunities the school 
affords. A teacher should strive to inspire enthusiasm for the 
work of the school rather than devotion to herself. On the pupil's 
side, however, personal reactions will control conduct. A liking 
for the teacher and the subject-matter are affections that cannot 
be sundered. Especially in the lower grades, the teacher will be 
loved, imitated, and idealized. Her enthusiasms will be catching, 
and the pupils will follow in her the mere appearance of activity 
and diligence. 

Rational Attitude to Behavior. Instead of reacting to pupils in 
a personal way as if they were adults, the teacher takes a rational 
attitude to immature behavior. She remembers that the nervous 
system of children is normally in somewhat unstable equilibrium, 
that there are unbalancing forces within and everywhere around, 
that conduct although " three- fourths of life " is the most difficult 
art for old and young, that in their striving to be, children are 
often awkw^ard and sometimes seem vicious, that they must grow 
gradually into a unity of control of mind and body, and that the 
keynote of modern school management as of hygiene is to build 
up as far as possible the powers of resistance against evil rather 
than to study the methods of cure. 

Continuity of Emotion. Emotional reactions tend to be 
continuous in their effects after the experience v^hich called 



Problem of the Emotions 225 

them forth has passed away or is forgotten. Thus a past 
state of mind may extend into the present and put one in a 
mood favorable to the task of the hour or it may be a dis- 
turbing force and lower efficiency. Children may come to 
school in a state of agitation caused by some harrowing 
experience at home. The teacher herself may bring into the 
schoolroom a feeling of dejection caused by something in no 
way connected with the work at hand. To throw off in- 
fluences that are unfavorable to the needs of the hour is an 
exercise of self-control which the teacher should be the first 
to exemplify, for the good of her own work and to prevent 
the spread of the mood by suggestion to the children in her 
care. 

This same principle is also illustrated in the emotional factor of 
" mental set." The attention focuses gradually before it becomes 
fully adjusted to an object of thought. Then the frame of adjust- 
ment tends to continue its state in the presence of new matter. 
This suggests that a quick transition from one subject of study to 
another would be somewhat disturbing. One cannot, for instance, 
leave an absorbing problem in arithmetic and at once take up a 
piece of literature for immediate appreciation. Poets recognize 
this principle of emotional inertia when they induce the proper 
mood for the main substance of a poem by means of an introduc- 
tory setting, or atmosphere. On the same principle it is possible 
to ask thought questions in too rapid succession, especially when 
the connection between them is not close. 

Affective Displacement. Since emotion tends to be 
continuous, when it is restrained it is often simply diverted 
or displaced. A boy on coming to boarding school became 
homesick at once. When asked whether he liked the place, 
he pointed to clouds in the sky beyond his window, whim- 
pering, '' I don't like those clouds out there." The boy 



226 Education and the General Welfare 

ascribed his feeling to the clouds, suppressing the idea that 
he was homesick. This illustrates the well-known fact that 
unpleasant emotional effects are referred to what is not their 
real cause. Disagreeable emotions due to failure in school 
work are attributed to the teacher or anything else related 
to the school, the subconscious assumption being that the self 
is not at fault. Instead of applying himself to the task, the 
pupil will make various excuses ; he does not know how, the 
teacher has favorites, there is not enough time, the books are 
not satisfactory, etc. On the other hand, if the child suc- 
ceeds everything else is satisfactory. Success in one thing 
will often make other studies endurable. It is a good prin- 
ciple to make sure of interesting a child in at least one of the 
activities of the school; it may be constructive work, ath- 
letic games, nature study, dravving, or some other study. 
In time the interest will spread to all that pertains to the 
school. 

The Unwilling Pupil. If a child cannot find anything 
in school that is satisfying, nothing will be done with the 
will to succeed. An unfavorable attitude is set up. With 
some children matters grow worse as the weeks pass. They 
go to school because they have to. They are slow to learn, 
know it, have no regrets, and are always impatient for re- 
lease from the hours of school work. They may have spirit 
and be openly rebellious or they may be passive under the 
yoke. They may actively resist education and use remark- 
able ingenuity in making a safe escape from the work as- 
signed. They look forward to holidays, try various schemes 
to get away before the actual beginning of the vacation, 
often ask to be excused early in the day because they are 
" wanted at home," etc. If they could be led to acquire 



Problem of the Emotions 227 

one absorbing interest in the school, there would be a com- 
plete change. 

Emotion and Object. Emotions are pleasant or un- 
pleasant, simple or complex, exciting or depressive ; some are 
more fundamental than others and appear outwardly more 
powerful, some have a marked effect on organic functions. 
But in themselves they are neither good nor bad. It is 
good to hate a bad thing and it is bad to love a bad thing. 
The proper objects of emotional regard are largely a matter 
determined by our social inheritance, which every child may 
learn of in the home, the school, the church, in customs, lan- 
guage, literature, and art. 

Development of Likes and Dislikes. In the home, the 
school, and especially in the free activities of the playground 
where many children of about the same age meet, there will 
be opportunities for personal relations to bring out likes and 
dislikes. An early conception of a bad boy is one who is 
not nice to play with, who hurts you, or interferes with you. 
This may be reenforced by standards of conduct that are 
inculcated in the good home, as illustrated by a boy who 
played in the home yard with a neighbor's lad of the same 
age only so long as the boy from across the way used proper 
language. Whenever he was tempted to use bad words his 
companion stopped play at once, took him to the gate, and 
bade him go home. In no other way than among children 
of about the same age engaged in free play will standards 
of conduct emerge more clearly for personal approval or dis- 
approval. In this stage of development all ideals will exist 
only as living embodiments. 

Animals and Flowers. Children seem to recognize early 
in life a kinship with flowers, and they look upon animals as 



228 Education and the General Welfare 

friends and companions. They bring out emotions of a 
kind that need to be aroused and exercised at an early age. 
Normal children are never selfish with their pets and they 
soon learn to endow flowers with the finest human qualities. 
This is especially the case when they can have them for 
their very own and are allowed to care and provide for them. 
Thus opportunity is also afforded for exercise of the emo- 
tions aroused, in outward action. The result of all this will 
be an attitude of kindness to all animals and pity for the 
weak and helpless before the deeper human sympathies make 
their appearance. 

Symbols. When children strive to rise to an ideal which 
they cannot fully comprehend, their emotions at first attach 
to its associates and symbols. The young boy desires to 
be a policeman ; he does not comprehend a policeman's duties, 
but he is charmed with the blue coat and bright buttons. 
As he looks over the pages of a history he admires the gen- 
eral with epaulets and gold lace rather than the statesman 
in conventional dress. He likes to wear badges, medals, 
and decorations on his manly breast. They are points of 
attachment for his admiration until he can comprehend the 
meaning back of them. 

For young and old it may be impossible to grasp the 
abstract idea of Our Country but they all thrill to the Flag. 
The symbols of patriotism and religion have aroused in 
many with only a vague idea of their meaning a devotion 
that proved faithful unto death. The motive of symbols 
and emblems has been widely used for educational purposes 
and with satisfactory results. 

Good and Evil. For most persons as well as for school 



Problem of the Emotions 229 

children the ideas of good and evil must be embodied to 
make them possible objects for the exercise of emotion. 
Living characters serve the purpose more readily than those 
that have passed into history. The latter must be recon- 
structed and related to the present to make them appreciable. 
This makes demands on the art of portrayal and the power 
of interpretation. Moreover, the good, whether in con- 
temporary life or in the past, is not so impressive as the 
evil. Evil is exceptional, unexpected, spectacular, and sen- 
sational. It excites the imagination of the young. It fas- 
cinates the writer so that the villain of fiction becomes the 
center of interest. Boys take to the bad habits of their 
elders largely because they are so easy to imitate. Good 
conduct, on the other hand, is in its nature rational, orderly, 
restrained, according to law, predictable. When all the 
characters of a stor}^ are good, it cannot command interest 
throughout except as a matter of duty. Besides, to be true 
to life, fiction must present both good and evil. 

How can a child, or any one else, profit in the contempla- 
tion of both kinds of character? Whether in life or in fic- 
tion the process is the same. If the matter is presented in 
such a light and so perceived that the good will be admired 
and the evil condemned, the two contrary emotions will 
have the same moral effect. And since one can see only 
himself in any kind of character, since he can in no way 
understand another person but by the measure of his own 
experiences of the same general kind, what he comes to ad- 
mire or condemn with all the force of his emotions is what 
in his own life of a similar, not necessarily identical, nature 
is admirable or damnable. Thus in the contemplation of 



230 Education and the General Welfare 

the characters of literature and life, one nourishes the good 
in himself by exalting it and purges away the evil by loath- 
ing and disgust. 

In the religious tradition the Great Exemplar represents 
the devotee's ideas of infinite perfection, which without the 
objective ideal would be more vaguely conceived and less 
effectively striven after. In good or ill, the object loved 
transforms the lover into its own image. 

From the classic literature read in all the grades, which 
has been preserved from oblivion by many generations of 
readers, school children should derive proper attitudes to- 
ward the good and evil impulses of life. 

Emotional Excess. When judged by adult standards 
children usually manifest a certain lack of emotional bal- 
ance. Childhood is the normal period for the rise and de- 
cline of the self -regarding emotions. In a normal develop- 
ment under proper home and school influences, they are to 
a certain extent outgrown just as physical weaknesses and 
disproportions are outgrown. Usually individualistic ten- 
dencies are so strong that they need little if any encourage- 
ment. The '' spoiled child " has had its ego too much in- 
dulged. It has been the center of interest at home for so 
long a time that in school it manifests an expectant atti- 
tude for all kinds of preferences and favors. This exag- 
gerated self-feeling cannot be ruthlessly stamped out; it 
must be gradually transformed. When this is not done in 
early life, there will remain a settled self -contemplative ego- 
ism for the maturer years that will cause its victim much 
disappointment and sorrow. 

When the ego-centric disposition takes the heroic and de- 
fensive form, much might be said in its favor. Funda- 



Problem of the Emotions 231 

mentally it is valuable as making for responsible behavior, 
for backbone, for the will to be counted as an individual 
against hosts of opponents if need be. But when exag- 
gerated it means a watchful guarding of the precious self, a 
suffering sensitiveness to all kinds of imagined slights and 
affronts. The child looks for, waits for trouble, and usu- 
ally finds it. 

When this same tendency takes the aggressive form, the 
child becomes a bully among his weaker playmates. The 
little children are in constant dread of him. Presuming 
upon his superior strength he goes about seeking those whom 
his vanity can devour. If the smaller children do not obey 
his commands, he hurts them by bending their fingers, twist- 
ing their arms, pinching, and beating them, and threatens 
them with dire harm if he meet them alone. In this form 
of excess one is tempted more than anywhere else to think 
of corporal punishment as the proper curative agency. If 
the distemper does not yield to persuasion, it seems to pre- 
sent a clear case where sparing the rod spoils the child. 

The Law on Corporal Punishment. Sometimes children defy all 
authority because they know that the courts protect them against 
corporal punishment. The rules of the board may state that no 
teacher shall administer this kind of chastisement upon any pupil 
in the school, and there may be no special school for incorrigibles. 
Or the law may read like that of the state of New Jersey: " No 
principal, teacher, or other person employed in any capacity in any 
school or educational institution, whether public or private, shall 
inflict corporal punishment upon any pupil attending such school or 
institution." Or if there is no specific law on the subject, the 
courts may be known to class corporal punishment as assault and 
battery committed by the teacher upon the pupil. This is not fa- 
vorable to the best order and the highest efficiency of the schools. 



232 Education and the General Welfare 

It is not intended here to advocate indiscriminate corporal punish- 
ment, but it is not fair to the teacher to remove all doubt that it 
will under any circumstances be inflicted. Enactments such as 
that of the new state of Arizona do not withhold the power of 
punishment from the teacher, only stating, however, that '' violence 
to a person shall not constitute assault and battery in the exercise 
of moderate restraint or correction given by law to parent over 
child, guardian over ward, or teacher over pupil." The Montana 
law reads, " After notice to parent, teacher may inflict corporal 
punishment, but in case of flagrant defiance such punishment may 
be inflicted without notice to parent." 

A Study of Cases. When the law does not limit in ad- 
vance the means of corrective discipline, there will be pos- 
sible a range of consequences that may become very inter- 
esting to the willful offender. However, every case should 
be studied, if its disposition can be deferred. Waiting for a 
long period of time in the teacher's office while an investiga- 
tion is being made with the final decision in suspense, is an 
experience that no juvenile culprit courts. Studying each 
case separately also gives an impression of judicial fairness 
and leaves the teacher blameless. But a child may have 
grown so far in the wrong direction that to bring him back 
without force may be a slow and impracticable process. For 
instance, take this actual case reported by a teacher : 

Boy in the eighth grade, fifteen years old, only boy in the family, 
naturally bright, favored and spoiled in every way by father, 
mother, and sisters until they lost complete control over him. If 
denied any favor or privilege, he teased and coaxed, then became 
so violent of temper that the family gave in to him to prevent his 
doing them personal harm. In school he had, almost from the 
first grade, been hard to control and as he grew older seemed more 
determined to have his own way. When he reached the eighth 
grade he had become openly defiant to authority and was con- 



Problem of the Emotions 233 

stantly on the alert to cause trouble by assuming a noisy manner, 
smiling scornfully at rebuke, or answering in an insolelnt manner, 
making noises with his feet, hands, or mouth, talking in an under- 
tone to himself or those around him and in every way distracting 
the attention of the class from the work in hand. In the teacher's 
efforts to control hm there was never at any time any support from 
his home. 

What is to be done in such a case? It might have a 
sobering effect on the youth to learn that he was being 
studied. Referring to a preceding chapter, one might fol- 
low the classifications given there and by the method of 
elimination find the trouble. Even though the boy passes 
for bright, intelligence tests might be attempted by a psy- 
chologist. If the average results do not indicate mental de- 
ficiency, they may point to a decided lack of mental balance. 
If there is any doubt an alienist might be called in consulta- 
tion. One should suspect, from the symptoms given in the 
description, moral imbecility. If not, his true place is in a 
school for incorrigibles. To let him remain in an ordinary 
school is an injustice to the teacher, a wrong to the other 
pupils, and is not for his own good. If he must stay in 
school and cannot be reached by gentler methods corporal 
punishment seems the only recourse left. 

There seems to be general agreement among authorities 
on child training from the gentle Pestalozzi down to our 
own time that there are extreme circumstances when the best 
that can -happen to such a child is this kind of restraint. A 
callous and headstrong disposition can at times be checked 
in no other way. Without it the youth will continue to 
live in a sort of romantic world of his own fashioning, 
untrue to actual life. He needs opposition in the form of 



234 Education and the General Welfare 

pain to reawaken in him a sense of the sober realities of 
life. 

But conduct arising from excessive timidity and a shrink- 
ing sensitiveness should never receive any form of punish- 
ment whatever except its own unavoidable consequences. 
On the contrary the sense of personality must be fostered 
and not crushed. It is the main ingredient of self-respect. 
This must be jealously guarded. The wise teacher will not 
violate it. She will not exact obedience for the sake of 
obedience. Her attitude will be a constant recognition that 
she is dealing with an individual with views and opinions 
of his own. This will in turn arouse in the child a feeling 
of responsibility for his reasonings as well as his conduct. 

Excessive Fears. One of the common illusions of 
adulthood is that children are care- free and happy and have 
but a shallow emotional life. The sorrows of childhood 
are real and that they may become serious is shown by the 
fact that suicides among school children have not been un- 
common in Germany, for instance, and are by no means 
unknown in other lands, including our own. 

It would not be desirable, even though it were possible, 
to prevent all the griefs that come in childhood, for the pic- 
tures that experience throws upon the screen of the soul 
must have both light and dark shades. But the lives of 
children of the emotional type are often made wretched by 
harrowing fears. ^ It may be the fear of pain, of ridicule, 
of humiliation, of the powers of nature, of wild animals, 
the supernatural, death, everlasting punishment in a lake of 

1 Hall : " A Synthetic Genetic Study of Fear," American Journal of 
Psychology, Vol. XXV, pp. 149-200; 321-392. See especially Shock 
and Pavor Nocturnus, p. I72ff. 



Problem of the Emotions 235 

fire. From whatever cause there may be disastrous effects 
on the mind and health. It is a well-known principle of 
physiology that pleasurable emotions tend to quicken the 
processes that are of advantage to the organism, while long- 
continued distressing ones tend to interfere and arrest these 
processes. Besides, violent emotional reaction in the young 
tend to disturb the growing powers of association, causing 
more or less permanent mental injury. " Much of the self- 
consciousness, introspection, neurasthenia, hypochondriasis, 
and hysteria which is noticeable in adults may be traced to 
the effects of fear in early life." ^ 

Children Conceal Their Fears. In many cases, perhaps 
in nearly all of them, children keep their fears concealed, 
giving no sign of their existence to others, for they have 
learned that telling about them invites ridicule. Many 
grown up persons recall to this day the objects o-f their child- 
hood's fears and even still retain one or two '' favorite " 
ones to which they give considerable attention. A glover's 
sign in the shape of a huge hand is said to have terrified 
Oliver Wendell Holmes. ^ Sir Walter Scott had a super- 
stitious fear for statuary of all kinds. Miss Martineau 
says : '' I was as timid a child as ever was born ; yet no- 
body knew or could know the extent of this timidity; for 
though abnormally open about everything else I was as 
secret as the grave about this. I had a dream at four years 
old which terrified me to such an excess that I cannot now 
recall it without a beating of the heart. The horrors of my 
nights were inexpressible." A magic lantern was her pet 

1 Guthrie : " Functional Nervous Disorders in Childhood," Oxford 
University Press, 1907, p. 38. 

2 Guthrie: op. cit. 



236 Education and the General Welfare 

terror. Charles Lamb says, " I never laid my head on my 
pillow I suppose from the fourth to the seventh year of my 
life, so far as my memory serves in things so long ago, 
without an assurance, which realized its own prophecy, of 
seeing some frightful specter." 

Fear as a Means of Discipline. Fear of consequences 
is nature's own regulator of conduct. It prevents the repe- 
tition of harmful experiences. To this extent fear is a part 
of the world's wisdom. As a means of discipline it is 
harmful when exaggerated or when aroused by a figment of 
the imagination. Parents tell their children of monsters 
that will come and get them if they are not good. When 
the parent pretends belief in such a being he only postpones 
the real problem of discipline to the time when the child dis- 
covers the deception. But there is another bad feature; 
the parent suggests that a malevolent power is allied with 
him against the child. If the effect of such a threat is suffi- 
ciently strong to influence the child's conduct, it is probably 
harmful; if there is no effect, it is useless. 

When children are old enough to conceive its meaning, 
fear of failure may be the monster that threatens them. 
But this is a real danger in a school where honorable stand- 
ards are observed. School is and ought to be just like real 
life in this respect; neglect has its penalties everywhere. 
There is nothing unnatural or harmful in a child's fear of an 
examination which is not beyond its powers; it operates a 
long time in advance and stimulates caution and systematic 
preparation. To happy-go-lucky students who do not seek 
an education but only a passing mark, this fear is indis- 
pensable to success. Fear is dangerous, however, in any 
case when it becomes excessive. It is uneconomical, too, 



Problem of the Emotions 237 

when it unmans the student and beclouds his understanding. 
Then the fear of failure becomes the cause of it. Some 
children are very conscientious and only too sensitive to the 
dangers that lie in wait for them. To play upon their fears 
in aid of discipline either in the home or at school does more 
harm than good. 

From much fault-finding and scolding children become 
fearful of the results of any work they may undertake. In 
this attitude of mind they come to school as indifferent to 
praise as they are sensitive to blame. Such children should 
be taken in hand by the teachers and brought out of the 
despair in which they live. 

Cases reported: 

A pupil was miklly reproved for neglecting to bring a dress she 
had finished to school. She took it so to heart that she wept bit- 
terly and could not meet the glance of the teacher for days. 

A child could not be called on to recite without showing marked 
signs of fear. She seemed afraid to be heard, although she knew 
her lessons. The teacher investigated and found the home life 
unpleasant. 

High school girl, never hopeful, never gay, always looked on the 
dark side of life. She was so sure she would not graduate that she 
did not get her dress for the occasion until a few days before com- 
mencement. Even after the principal told her she would get 
through, she hesitated to believe it. 

Fears Dissolved by Understanding. These children 
came to school and continued there in constant fear of fail- 
ure and expecting nothing else. To the teacher who investi- 
gates, the causes in the home life of such a state of mind may 
be clear enough, but the pupil herself is clearly conscious 
only of the paralyzing effects. The unpleasant experiences 
have continued for so long a time that, as is usual in such 



238 Education and the General Welfare 

cases, the morbid sensitiveness takes a large place in the 
consciousness and prevents an understanding of the whole 
situation. 

How can a teacher dissolve fears and reestablish confi- 
dence in the pupil's self? By bringing about in the pupil 
an understanding of the causes, conditions, and consequences 
of these particular fears. The very fact that the children 
suffer from this kind of neglect is an indication of their 
craving for approval and sympathy. This suggests the first 
step -to be taken to restore the pupil's confidence. After a 
relation of sympathy has been established, the conversations 
that follow will gradually reveal the causes of such a 
state of mind. It will also become clear that the mind is 
the more immediate cause and is itself to blame for the fear 
of failure. Fear cannot exist, unless assented to and enter- 
tained. It becomes a self-imposed obstacle to success; for 
what success one has depends on how well he does his work 
and not what some one else may say or think about it. 
When fear becomes a hindrance it is unreasonable. It can 
be overcome. One must believe it can be overcome and at 
once assume the feeling of confidence. 

If the younger children are unduly disturbed by excessive 
fears, it is possible also to remove them by explanation and 
understanding. In such a case the teacher or parent may 
tell stories of her own childhood with its groundless fears, 
of the cause of dreams on account of illness, of happy and 
helpful fairies too little to be feared, of the cry of a ghost- 
child heard in a near-by field that came from the old house- 
cat, and other incidents that will make good stories and at 
the same time show that there is no conspiracy of evil to 
destroy innocent children. Young children may conceal 



Problem of the Emotions 239 

their fears, but so long as there are no obvious disturbing 
effects from them they can do no harm. It is good to 
know something of fear for a proper fullness and balance of 
the emotional life. 

Anger. Another of the troublesome emotions encoun- 
tered in the school and the home is anger. In many cases 
this seizes upon a child and makes him lose control of him- 
self. A very trifling matter may cause it. In general, the 
child wants something and is hindered from getting it ; this 
causes a welling up of the passion. It is an old and common 
practice to still a child's rage by quickly thrusting a toy into 
his hands. The object is to stop the crying, and it usually 
succeeds. It may be explained as a diversion of the atten- 
tion and the aroused emotion into a channel of a less dis- 
turbing form of motor activity. In the schoolroom such 
seizures may be diverted in the same way by quickly induc- 
ing some other form of activity. If this does not succeed 
the child should be taken out of the room until he has calmed 
down, for it is better not to have a " scene " in the presence 
of the other children who will lose their own composure by 
it and come under its suggestive influence. 

Violent outbursts of anger are always interesting. Chil- 
dren look on in awe if there is any possible reason for fear, 
or with growing amusement if the spectacle is often re- 
peated and harmless in its consequences. A child may be 
teased by playmates because they want to have some fun ; 
they want to hear his eloquent profanity or see the play of 
passion on his expressive countenance. The teacher may 
also well bear in mind that if she herself can produce on oc- 
casion a lively example of spectacular wrath, there will al- 
ways be a few children who will be interested to see the 



240 Education and the General Welfare 

performance repeated. There can be no doubt that per- 
sons are teased for amusement, and that teasing stops when 
amusement ceases. When a child is old enough and can be 
brought to see its passion in all its course as others see it, 
the emotional extravagance will come under the dominance 
of the understanding and will gradually disappear. 

As reported to the writer by the principal of a school for incor- 
rigibles, a severe case of violent temper was relieved in the follow- 
ing unusual way : the principal told the boy why he was committed 
to his care, explaining that so long as he could not control his 
anger he was handicapped for life. Then the principal said: "I 
will now ask the other boys to make you mad and I hope to see 
you do your best to control yourself. See, now, whether you can- 
not be a man and master your temper regardless of what they may 
say or do to you." The principal was present at the " trial." The 
tempters made their plan and gathered in a group on one side of 
the room and faced the boy. They improvised a taunting mimicry 
of a member of the boy's race representing an organ grinder wath 
a monkey. The boy's ire rose at once, his limbs trembled, his fists 
doubled, his eyes blazed, he breathed hard, but he stood still — a 
complete picture of the passion. But very soon he regained com- 
posure and became calm. He won. The principal asserts that as 
long as he knew^ the boy the fits of violence did not return. Always 
afterward he was a good fellow. He came to know the passion, 
" looked down " upon it, and controlled it. But the method used 
cannot be generally recommended to all teachers. 

Nervous Instability. Instead of a disturbance that af- 
fects children only occasionally, but profoundly, there may 
be a constant state of nervousness with a slow waste of en- 
ergy going on day and night. This kind of child responds 
to stimuli too readily, is over-alert, acts impulsively, is quick 
to answer questions without taking time for orderly asso- 
ciation. Instances of this type are to be found most fre- 



Problem of the Emotions 241 

quently in crowded city districts. Sometimes a majority 
of the class become afflicted with the disorder by suggestion 
from a few. A vivacious teacher overstimulates them. In 
response to a question they rise from their seats, wave their 
hands, and snap their fingers for attention. Their answers 
are Httle better than guesses. Sometimes these guesses are 
right, and for a time the school work goes on like an inter- 
esting game, a sort of gamble as to who will hit the mark 
and win the approving smile. Mental effort is related solely 
to discerning by surface signs what answers the teacher may 
want. An exercise that represents profitable work can be 
carried on for only a short time before interest lags and 
attention wanders. 

The disorder is sometimes associated with high intellec- 
tual endowment, but stimulation of interest soon leads to 
fatigue and reactions unfavorable to school work. It is also 
indicative of inferior mental character as manifested by 
flightiness of attention, poor memory, and weakness in the 
power of abstraction. There is alv/ays a tendency to motor 
restlessness, the child cannot sit still ; there is a tendency 
to play, to bother somebody, to handle something. The ef- 
fort to think is attended with difficulty; some sort of motor 
support seems to be needed; to hold attention to the matter 
under consideration, it becomes necessary to drum with the 
fingers, to handle a pencil, to swing the feet, or to chew 
gum. 

Like symptoms may also be observed in normal children 
on " off days " after exhausting social diversions. 

Influence of the Teacher. What is to be done in such 
cases? They are as puzzling to the school physician as to 
the teacher. The influence of the teacher, however, is most 



242 Education and the General Welfare 

important Since we know that a manifest disorder like this 
may spread so that in time a whole class may by uncon- 
scious imitation affect the mannerisms of a few, the principle 
of suggestion may be relied upon to work also in the oppo- 
site direction. The teacher must be the very opposite of 
the nervous child. She must of all things not be nervous 
herself. The child will gain by the teacher's calm and rest- 
ful manner. She will be careful not to overstimulate. The 
tempo of the recitation must not be too slow or too fast. 
There must be a suggestion of order and calm in the sur- 
roundings everywhere. The teacher will not become per- 
sonal nor important and explosive in manner. She will not 
wander away from the subject-matter. Everything done 
must suggest the power of coordinated and unified action; 
this the child lacks. The teacher must have perfect control 
of herself first, and second, of the whole classroom situa- 
tion. If the school cannot be a corrective influence in this 
kind of disorder it is likely to do more harm than good, and 
the child had better not go to school at all. The condition 
should be relieved in any particular instance as soon as it 
manifests itself, not alone for the sake of the victim but 
also for the sake of those who are likely to come under its 
influence. Nervous, fidgety children should be given an in- 
conspicuous place in the room, rear seats, so that their antics 
may not always be in view to affect the behavior of normal 
children. 

Excessive Inhibition. Stubbornness is sometimes ad- 
mired as showing strength of will and character. This is 
an error. It is not an active characteristic, not the result 
of normal deliberation. Inhibition sets in before reflection 



Problem of the Emotions 243 

begins. In its pure form the spell is not broken by a violent 
outburst of emotion; it must wear itself away gradually. 
Different methods of dispelling the disorder have been tried 
by teachers. Corporal punishment has been resorted to, 
but this is not at all a satisfactory way to cope with it. 
A mild form of it may sometimes yield to reproof and a 
show of authority on the part of the teacher. A severe 
case of the kind reported by a teacher, was cured on the 
principle of '' natural punishment." According to this 
method the matter is so managed that the pupil will suffer 
the natural consequences of his behavior. 

Alice aged ii came from a home where conditions were bad. 
She was always terribly beaten by a brutal father for the slightest 
offenses. In school she one day suddenly decided to do nothing 
required of her; kept her seat when others recited, refused to 
answer when spoken to. She made herself a social oddity in the 
school and the teacher decided to let her have all she wanted of her 
assumed character. She was let alone. After some time the other 
children became curious and asked the teacher why Alice did not 
recite' with them. The teacher simply answered that Alice did not 
want to. The children soon forgot about her in their activities 
and also made up their games with Alice left out. In the mean- 
time the teacher spoke kindly to the girl whenever there was occa- 
sion for it, but in no way recognized her as a part of the school 
life from which she had separated herself. One day Alice brought 
the teacher a bouquet of flowers, but this made no difference in her 
school status. Another day she came to the teacher and whis- 
pered, " I want to be a good girl now." She was fully restored to 
her class and gave no further trouble. 

Summary. In this chapter we have carried the question 
of how children differ into the field of the emotions. Here 
lie both cause and effect of character. The reactions of the 



244 Education and the General Welfare 

children to each other, to the teacher, and the subject-matter, 
and the teacher's reactions to the pupils are of vital impor- 
tance in the problems of school management. Since emo- 
tions tend to be continuous, their causes are likely to be dis- 
placed. This becomes a fertile source of misunderstanding, 
therefore, when the emotions are unpleasant. To induce un- 
obtrusively the right kind of responses to proper objects is 
a test of the highest skill in school management. When 
emotions become excessive and are harmful to the child 
and disturb the good order of the school, they require espe- 
cial attention. Moreover, each child should be studied as an 
individual; if possible before anything has happened that 
needs correction. This is in accordance with the principle 
of constructive discipline. Specimen cases have been cited 
with the intention that they may serve as " studies " and not 
as giving rule-of-thumb methods of procedure. As a gen- 
eral principle it is suggested that, as in excessive emotions 
there is loss of control because " he does not know what he 
is doing," so restoring an understanding of the whole situa- 
tion will probably restore control. 

Usually persons with a capacity for strong feeling are 
also of high mental endowment in other respects. The emo- 
tional temperament under control is a most desirable ele- 
ment of human character. '' Without it all would be re- 
duced to the same level of dullness and mediocrity. The 
creative faculty in art, science, and literature depends upon 
imagination and upon emotional susceptibility. It is prob- 
able that no advance and no reform since civilization began 
has ever been effected by any one bereft of emotional ca- 
pacity, and therefore if on recognizing this temperament in 
early childhood when emotions are most keenly felt and 



Problem of the Emotions 245 

their effects are indelible, we are able in any way to guide 
and modify it by cultivating reason and common sense, and 
intelligent sympathy, we may do good service to mankind." ^ 

1 Guthrie : op. cit. 



CHAPTER XV 
Factors in Self-Control 

It is entirely proper and commendable to study the be- 
havior of exceptional children for the good we may do 
them. But the teacher has in mind another purpose besides. 
They present possibilities of disturbance all out of propor- 
tion to their number. They give exceptional trouble. One 
pupil incapable of self-control may exact more attention 
than all the others combined; one thirtieth of the children 
may consume two-thirds of the teacher's energy. Hence a 
study of the few will in the end be of service to the many. 
We think of self-control as particularly related to the good 
of the social whole. 

The Self -Controlled. H it were not for the fact that 
the larger number of children are tractable and quiescent, 
school management would present insuperable difficulties. 
Simply as concrete examples such children become a factor 
in the self-control of the erratic and unbalanced. But these 
children are also relatively unemotional and cannot be so 
easily aroused to supreme effort. They are not much af- 
flicted with '^ the divine unrest." They have only ordinary 
ambitions. They sleep and eat well with perfect digestion. 
They study, but never to the point of personal discomfort. 
They are not without emotions but have an affinity for the 
pleasurable kind. They live in the present, spend little 

246 



Factors in Self-Control 247 

time with regrets and indulge in no vain expectations. They 
are satisfied if they can pass their studies, and do not envy 
the prodigy at the head of the class. In general they are 
conservative, with an eye for the solid and substantial com- 
forts of real life. They do not dream of distinction and 
greatness to come, of triumphal tours and ovations from 
the multitude. They will always be in line with school re- 
quirements but particularly interested in minimum essentials 
and somewhat suspicious of what seems to them imprac- 
tical. They are willing and obedient, but not deeply in- 
terested. They present no problems of discipline, but they 
are also never destined to be a source of pride in the achieve- 
ments of teaching. 

There is, to be sure, a number in every group of children, 
relatively small, who seem to have all the desired qualities. 
They are self-possessed, of equable disposition, quick to ob- 
serve, ready to learn. They are unselfish, adaptable to 
every situation, and pass with the highest marks. Their 
life is pleasant, everybody speaks well of them, and yet they 
remain unspoiled through it all. But even here there is an- 
other side. These persons sail smooth seas but they know 
little of resistance. Satisfactions come to them as they 
go along; they are not tossed by the storms of baffled ambi- 
tions. They experience no limited successes in school life 
that hurt their pride and make them summon all their en- 
ergies to surpass all others in some future achievements. 
In school they excel without trying hard ; they may lack in- 
itiative and force afterward. 

Study o£ Means of Self-Control. It is a generally ac- 
cepted principle that growth of control is from within and 
not through compulsion from without. Forcible repression 



248 Education and the General Welfare 

is easier and more immediate but its results are lasting 
very often only when they are unfavorable. But how can 
self-control begin and continue? How can a child learn to 
use those elements of its original nature which are at the 
basis of character development? What are the factors that 
tend to unify the self and adjust it to the environment? 

This is the source of the guiding principles of school 
management. One of the factors has already been referred 
to several times in the preceding chapter; the intellect is 
helped to gain a view of extravagant manifestations and 
then puts them under restraint, just as a child quits crying 
when held up to a mirror to see itself. But control from 
within cannot take place before there is a sense of self. To 
form the self the child first goes through a period of in- 
tense individuahsm. This is essential to the future altruistic 
goal of character. Unless a person knows himself as an 
individual he cannot put himself into the place of another. 
He cannot know how to do unto others before he has a con- 
ception of how he would be done by. High character is 
always strong character with power to stand alone if need 
be. But '' Thy neighbor as thyself " — self and neighbor, 
the individual and the other self are the twin bases of hu- 
man character. Of the first the child knows much in a nar- 
row way before coming to school, but it has not yet arrived 
at an adequate conception of the second. How can it bridge 
the gap? 

Instinctive Support. Social experiences are at first in- 
terpreted in terms of individual value in order that more 
and more individual experiences may be interpreted in 
terms of social value. In the desire for companionship there 
is a deep-rooted individualism. Animal species became gre- 



Factors in Self-Control 249 

garious for the sake of individual protection. Alone they 
were lost, together they were safe. The group spirit was 
nourished by repeated success in repelling attacks. Satis- 
faction with positive group achievements gave rise in the 
end to the spirit of cooperation. More and more collective 
purposes became central while mere self-satisfactions fell 
into the background. Desire for recognition and approval 
by the group or its leader remains strong, especially in chil- 
dren, and it should also be recognized as a factor of support 
to the self in its endeavor to reach the higher goal. Ap- 
peals to the inherent desire for companionship, for coop- 
eration, for approval — half individual and half social — 
are among the means to make grow from within the child 
the power of self-control in the school environment. 

Desire to Be a Man. As children grow in social ex- 
perience they lose much of their native instability and grad- 
ually take on more of the settled composure of their elders. 
As every one knows the children of the lowest grades are 
relatively spontaneous and naively expressive. However, 
by the time they pass the third year in school they develop 
a growing aversion to the characteristics of childishness. 
'' Don't be a baby " becomes a strong deterrent to outbursts 
of individual ill-will. This is the time when the teacher's 
appeal to the little man and little woman in the child becomes 
especially effective for discipline. It is interesting to note, 
too, in passing, that about this time the most opprobrious 
epithet that can be applied to most boys is anything that 
suggests effeminacy. To be called a " sissy " may bring 
tears of resentment and rage. On the other hand, a girl 
does not object to being called a tomboy. 

It is particularly valuable at this time to manifest confi- 



250 Education and the General Welfare 

dence and assume that the child will do the manly part. 
At this time also school work should seem worth while. It 
is safe to assume that the children want the kind and amount 
of work that will test their mettle. Soft pedagogy and 
sentimentalism seem out of place here more than anywhere 
else and especially fatal to the interest of boys in school 
work. 

A Controlling Interest. It is well known that work or 
business has a stabilizing effect on a man's character. Men 
and women can keep themselves in hand when they have 
a special interest in the concerns of life. The same is true 
of children. A dominant interest unifies the self and gives 
it point and outward direction. To grow up into adoles- 
cence with nothing in particular to occupy the mind leaves 
it open to all sorts of temptations. Youth is particularly 
the time for active interests in such fields as athletic games 
and civic and social service. 

In some pupils control follows the more purely intel- 
lectual interests. They are not intensely practical and seem 
to enjoy thinking partly for its own sake. They are in- 
clined to be analytic ; they like to look at the inner consti- 
tution of things. They are willing to while away time in 
study; a problem or puzzle is a challenge to their type of 
mind. Moreover, they are likely to be bored by the hum- 
drum interests of the ordinary pupil and will soon tire 
of what seems perfectly obvious, and concentrate but poorly 
on matters of practical value. Among them we should 
expect to find the inventor, the explorer, or the research 
scholar of the future. They are often neglected in school 
for the mediocre many. Unless the teacher is resourceful 
and fully alive to the needs of this type, the school will of- 



Factors in Self -Control 251 

fer too few opportunities for intellectual adventure and 
may do harm to such a pupil if compelled to stay in it. 

Self-Control and Leadership. Some children are at 
their best when they can take the lead. They take satis- 
faction in planning, managing, and bringing things to pass. 
But this is so valuable a means of growth that it should not 
be always reserved for those who manifest the greatest de- 
sire for it. 

It is not so important for a pupil to have a sense of mas- 
tery as it is important not to have a feeling of incapacity 
for any kind of subject-matter. The elementary school in 
particular is not the place to ignore weaknesses and develop 
special abilities. It will be best to remove, if possible, ah 
causes of the feeling of incompetence in any of the ele- 
mentary school essentials. If a child is weak in arithmetic 
and strong in history, for instance, if quick to solve exer- 
cises but slow to analyze problems, the lack should be made 
good. Specialization comes later. 

Imagination and Character. To conjure up a clear 
vision of a distant goal, to idealize results, and to anticipate 
satisfactions of attainment, are all the part of the imagina- 
tion in stimulating and organizing effort directed to some 
end. 

When imagination is weak or immature a distant goal 
is not envisaged and effort must be immediately rewarded. 
Young children want what they want '' right now." Long 
deferred satisfactions cannot be anticipated. Present com- 
forts obscure the attractions of the future. The lowest goal 
of effort is immediate material good. The dog leaps high 
because of the food held up in the hand of his master. 
When a child cannot appreciate the higher motive, a lower 



252 Education and the General Welfare 

one is in order. To conceive of virtue as its own reward 
and study for its own sake is not possible to any school 
child. One cannot expect, for instance, that a child will be 
punctual in the morning for the sake of punctuality. He 
may come early to engage in play or to satisfy his curiosity 
or to win personal approval or the sign of it in a beautiful 
engraved card with his name inscribed upon it, or he may 
have been punctual so often that he has the habit which it 
is hard to break. Ordinarily it will be hard to yield the 
present comfort of a warm bed for any deferred higher 
satisfactions. In such cases the attractions of the school 
may have to be reenforced by the parental vis a tergo. 
When children are too young to appreciate the ultimate 
good of regular attendance, they must accept the advice 
of those who can. The plan of frequent promotions is a 
spur to the efforts of children who cannot a year in ad- 
vance conceive the pleasure of passing and the distress of 
failure. Signs of progress must mark time for them as 
the weeks pass. 

Power to resist present delights and live laborious days 
for idealized future good, is, however, one of the higher pur- 
poses of school training. To appreciate and strive for 
what is best in the long run should be the chief concern of 
all. School practices should teach step by step that there 
are higher things to strive for than immediate material good 
or money or things useful or things beautiful or rewards of 
merit or certificates of promotion or individual preferment. 
These are at best but temporary supports to those that need 
them, steps on the way to a higher ideal of service. 

Imitation of Ideals. Living characters in a community 
are likely to be admired and imitated whether they are 



Factors in Self -Control 253 

worthy or not. Under their influence children think they 
know what to do and how to conduct themselves. Ideals 
in fiction and biography make greater demands of the im- 
agination ; it is difficult without suggestive help from teachers 
to appreciate the good in them. Under the influence of the 
admiration they arouse, the child takes on by unconscious 
imitation the point of view and general tendencies of these 
originals ; this may be followed by voluntary translation of 
these tendencies into outward action. The influence of 
ideals may remain subjective and may not be realized in 
action ; or it may remain superficial as mere acting, in which 
the feeling basis as well as behavior is simulated. 

The Critical Point of the Imagination. " The free im- 
agination of wished for things results well for the mind 
through painting in more glowing colors the excellence of 
what is wished for, and firing the ambition to strive for it 
the more intensely." In Miss Bryant's novel, little Jim Hib- 
bault trudged along by the side of his exhausted and self- 
immolated mother : '* I'll make roads when I'm big," he told 
her, " real good ones that you can walk on easy " — a, vision 
of countless toiling human beings traveling on his roads all 
down the coming ages, knowing them for good roads, and 
praising the maker. And such roads we know he did build, 
not only for people's feet, but for their lives. No posses- 
sion is more precious than the power to create such visions, 
so long as it gives stimulus for putting them into action. 
But the case is not always so fortunate. 

" Physics teaches that if a substance be subjected to different 
forces, such as temperature or pressure, critical points are reached, 
that is, points above and below which the properties of the sub- 
stances are greatly different. Water has critical points at 32°, 



254 Education and the General Welfare 

where it freezes, or 212° Fahrenheit, where it changes into steam. 
Imagination acts similarly on character. It has a critical point 
where we cease to be fired by the imagination, but drop back upon 
it alone. Poets have sung the mental delights that may come from 
nothing but imagery; what is equally important is that imagina- 
tion carries with it no dependence upon, or responsibility to, the 
external world. It is never kept late at its office, and runs up no 
bills. This fact, that daydreams are not continually confronted 
with experience, makes it possible for them to take on forms that 
do not fit the actual conditions of one's life." ^ 

Daydreaming. When thinking by means of ideas is as 
yet impossible on account of Hmited experience the mental 
life of the child is largely taken up with fanciful reveries. 
Where this is balanced by much outward activity with things 
in play and the child is not too much isolated from other 
children, it is to be regarded as one of the signs of normal 
development. But when there is too little objective ex- 
perience the development of the imagination may come at an 
early age to the critical point referred to. In the overde- 
velopment of the tendency to create the fanciful, there come 
to be two worlds for the child : that for its necessary con- 
tact with daily life, and that of its pleasurable fancies. 
When contact with actual life becomes in any way distress- 
ing, the child falls back on its dream world. Here hopes, 
wishes, and even sensual desires may find psychic fulfillment. 
This world becomes more and more separated from the ac- 
tual. The child keeps the secret, seeks solitude, avoids play 
and playmates, and in the presence of other persons is back- 
ward, confused, uncertain. To cope with the real world be- 
comes more and more difficult. To correct the distemper it 

1 Wells: "Mental Adjustments" (Conduct of Mind Series), New 
York, 1917, p. II. 



Factors in Self -Control 255 

must be taken in time and objective interests must be in- 
creased and intensified. Such a child needs the society of 
vigorous playmates, toys that invite activity, no stories, 
many plans for every day, " hiking " trips, and a healthful 
fatigue on retiring for the night so that sleep may be spon- 
taneous and immediate. 

For a child with very active fancies, the school should 
provide many opportunities for expression, for this is a 
way of keeping open the connection between the mental and 
the actual world. The children of the kindergarten and 
the lower grades should be encouraged to tell about their 
dreams and fancies, to draw and write about them. 

Falsifying. Unscrupulous use may be made of a re- 
sourceful imagination. In typical instances the motive may 
be reward or profit or it may be to escape the penalty of 
wrong-doing. However, untruths may be told without any 
intention to deceive. When children are too young to dis- 
tinguish the fanciful from the actual they may tell their 
fancies as truths. These are not falsehoods, properly speak- 
ing, and merit no punishment. Sometimes the wish is father 
to the fancy as in the following, reported by a teacher : 

A little girl, an only child, invited me, her teacher, to call at her 
home to see her Httle baby sister just arrived. She said, " We are 
all crazy about it." So one evening after school I called and in- 
formed the mother of the purpose of my visit. The report was 
untrue. The mother asked how such a pernicious habit could be 
broken up. The child's excuse was that she wanted " somebody to 
play with." 

This kind of prevarication is indulged in usually by chil- 
dren in the pre-school period. It is comparatively rare 
above the kindergarten age. The lie that is told to shield a 



256 Education and the General Welfare 

schoolmate or to protect companions against the schemes 
of an unfriendly group comes at a later period when the 
gang spirit exacts its tribute of honor and loyalty. The 
prudent teacher will not require treason to associates as a 
support for his disciplinary measures, but rather will mani- 
fest a hostile attitude to all sorts of '' tattling " because he 
will know it to be a means of weakening the morale of the 
school. The strong teacher will not need the support of 
spies and gossips. He will be alert and wide awake to all 
that happens but will not play the role of the police officer 
or detective who assumes the existence of evils and spends 
his time in ferreting them out. There will be no tempta- 
tion in his school to tell lies of loyalty or disloyalty to the 
gang. 

The lie told to companions which exaggerates the strength 
or prowess of the teller will not long be troublesome, for 
sooner or later such a child will meet severe punishment in 
the mistrust and ridicule of his playmates. 

The most dangerous of all lies told by children is one that 
offers an easy way out of a more culpable fault. When 
such a case comes up in school, the teacher will do well to 
take the parent into his counsel, and the two should give it 
the attention its seriousness deserves. The selfish lie is the 
basest of all, and it may appear in various forms. It is, 
however, not a common fault among school children. Open- 
ing exercises may be used to point out typical instances of 
honor and truthfulness and to explain why they are valued 
among men. 

Summary. In all that has been said, there is one gen- 
eral dominating fact. It is the self-regarding emotions that 
undermine self-control. Anger, fear, nervous sensitiveness, 



Factors in Self-Control 257 

aggressive egotism, etc., disturb mental balance by exag- 
gerating the importance of the self. The imagination is 
favorable to the character up to a certain point; only so 
long as it is unselfish. Perversion takes place when the 
imagination turns inward from proper objects outside the 
self and becomes self-indulgent and by its figments falsi- 
fies reality. Growth in self-control as well as in mental in- 
tegrity is indicated in decreasing self-love and a lessened 
self-consciouness, '' the two fountainheads of maladapta- 
tion." ^ When children develop normally, they gradually 
outgrow their self-regarding tendencies. Intellectual and 
moral development go best hand in hand. With a gain in 
the power of concentration, orderly association, and con- 
secutive thinking, the teacher may expect a corresponding 
increase in patience and persistence in work, in self-reliance 
and self-control, in the power of initiative and the sense of 
responsibility. To train for moral integrity, the teacher 
needs to keep in mind only one simple rule: Think of 
other persons and things, never of the self and its for- 
tunes and misfortunes. That this attitude is also favorable 
to the development of mental power and its control will 
appear in the next chapter. 

1 Wells : " Mental Adaptation," Mental Hygiene, Vol I, Jan., 1917, 
pp. 60-80, D. Appleton and Company. 



CHAPTER XVI 
Mental Development Through Attitudes 

In preceding chapters we have discussed initial impulses 
at the basis of character, emotions which disturb it, and fac- 
tors which support or weaken self-control. We now come 
to speak of the habits and attitudes of a final character, such 
as the school should establish not alone for its own proper 
management but also for their value in life. 

In habit an act is made easy by repetition. In attitudes 
we put the body in a position or the mind in a mood. This 
may be done in two ways : there is an active attitude which 
is favorable to a desired result, and there is a so-called atti- 
tude or inclination of consciousness due to repeated feeling 
reactions in view of certain objects of thought. When one 
puts himself into a pleasant frame of mind because he 
knows it to be favorable to the study of the lesson, we have 
the first. When from repeated feelings of satisfaction due 
to a teacher's approval of a pupil's good work, a disposition 
favorable to that kind of work is established, the pupil will 
like it. This gives us the second. The feeling reactions 
may be positive or negative, depending on the tone of the 
reactions whether pleasant or unpleasant. To arouse in the 
child repeatedly pleasurable emotions in the presence of a 
good thing or act, or aversion and disgust for what is bad, is 
to wield a powerful instrument in the development of char- 

258 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 259 

acter. This will leave a permanent disposition of the con- 
sciousness which will operate even though its effect may not 
reach the level of awareness. 

Launching the Day's Work. The first thing to do is to 
establish an active attitude favorable to the work of the 
school. This does not have to be assumed; for there is to 
build on, especially in the morning, a normal impulse to 
activity which comes from an accumulation of energy after 
the night's repose. And then the morning air and sunlight 
on the way to school cause peripheral responses that make 
the blood tingle and add vigor to the energy that seeks re- 
lease in doing something. All that is needed is to direct 
this activity in harmony with the prevailing mood into chan- 
nels that bring satisfaction. If, however, there is an at- 
mosphere of depression, if the teacher is slow and lifeless, 
this will tend to check enthusiasm for the work of the school. 

The Cheerful Attitude. Between the cheerful and the 
depressing tone there is a marked difference in relation to 
efficiency. The one is generally favorable to work, the other 
unfavorable. Curiosity, eagerness to learn, etc., go with 
the feeling of good cheer, fear of we know not what and a 
general arrest of activity go with depression. 

A favorable disposition, a feeling of confidence, will bring 
clear perceptions and fine discriminations. Without it ef- 
fort will succeed but slowly and so slowly that the result 
will be discouragement and further depression. The teacher 
must look to the general tone of the school life. The de- 
pressing atmosphere must be dissipated. And this can be 
done on the part of the teacher by cultivating a sense of 
humor and by assuming the bodily attitudes which go with 
the more favorable emotions. The proper tone for work 



26o Education and the General Welfare 

and study will also aid in general control. It promotes a 
feeling of satisfaction with the things that are and reduces 
fretfulness and the spirit of insurrection. In the effort to 
gain control of a situation that has gone wrong, it is a good 
plan to return first to a general feeling of good humor 
and make that the point of departure for the desired goal. 

The emotional tone that is favorable to activity promotes 
also the feeling of interested cooperation, a sense of belong- 
ing to the community, while depression tends to breed iso- 
lation of mind and the feeling that '' nobody likes me." 
This brings us to the powerful motive of esprit de corps. 
This may be invoked for all kinds of betterments. When 
all are in a mood to work together to attain an object, the 
reflex on the character is usually more valuable than the 
end obtained. An appeal to this spirit reduces tardiness 
and improves the attendance record. It has a restraining 
influence when the good name of the school is at stake. 
The spirit can be enlisted to bring about community reform. 
It is one of the most powerful agencies in supplying a mo- 
tive for work which appeals to all alike. And there is 
hardly any other motive that makes for good order to the 
same degree as the spirit of cooperation for a common end. 
And every piece of constructive work or every series of 
games that the whole school unites " to put across " means 
self -disciplinary control and a lesson in democracy, not to 
speak of the results of an academic character that the under- 
taking affords. 

The Right Use of the Mind. The attitudes that are es- 
tablished in school depend much on what the teacher accepts 
and approves. This is usually applied to moral conduct; 
we show our approval of right acts and thus give them a 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 261 

social sanction. But this phase of discipHne is so well un- 
derstood that it hardly needs mention. It is our purpose 
in this place to consider particularly those tendencies which 
develop the mental character without intending to imply 
that they are not related to moral development. The goal 
of school work is not so important as the training afforded 
in reaching the goal. The final difference between the man 
who has profited by his school work and the other kind is 
that the former has learned how to use his powers and the 
other has not. All.good schools are training grounds in the 
right use of the mind. 

The Attitude of Attention. One would naturally think 
first of the physical attitude of attention as a necessary con- 
dition of mental activity. In its primitive form and when 
directed to a material object it consists in bodily stillness and 
a fixed attitude. It is well illustrated in the case of a wild 
beast or the common house cat lying in wait for its prey. 
The particular object is singled out and all the world be- 
side is excluded from the gaze. The degree of concen- 
tration is greatly increased when the object is seen to move. 
In man this outward form of attention when directed to a 
material object is most instinctive and unreflective. There is 
much more meaning in a moving than a still picture for a 
child. For him the moving thing lives, the still is dead. 
The children of a kindergarten were asked to name the 
things in the room that were alive; they had no doubt but 
that the smoke and the fire were among the living things. 

In the young child the fixed attitude cannot long be main- 
tained before random motor reactions manifest themselves. 
In the pre-school period when the child is largely under the 
tuition of his impulses and when he learns rapidly, he is 



262 Education and the General Welfare 

seldom still except for a few moments but passes rapidly 
from one thing to another and spends his time mainly in 
doing and acting. 

The Child's Attention. When the child comes to school 
the teacher must remember, therefore, that its attention is 
dynamic as in play rather than static as in quiet analysis. 
This is generally true of the first few years of the child's 
school life. The power to think as an adult does comes 
slowly and gradually. To gain a thought is analogous to 
early attempts to grasp a toy: there are at first random, dif- 
fuse, round-about, and apparently useless attempts; think- 
ing goes by jerks and starts and sudden flashes of inner 
light, and not in the orderly procession of formal steps. 

Bodily Positions and Thinking. Among adults the 
thinking attitude takes various forms. Some say that they 
always think better on their feet, others find that their best 
thinking is done after they retire for the night, boys in col- 
lege dormitories usually seem to prefer the horizontal posi- 
tion with the feet somewhat higher than the head, others 
think best walking to and fro in a room, and others still, 
prefer a piece of paper with a pen or pencil in hand. How- 
ever, individuals may differ, it seems certain that the sitting 
and the standing position are most generally useful in sit- 
uations that do not admit of delay or postponement. Hence, 
the school should cultivate the erect attitude of sitting and 
standing in connection with the thought processes, whatever 
individual preferences may be in the prolonged study of 
problems. 

Thinking Under Difficulties. Allowance, however, 
should be made for those pupils of the emotional type who 
find it difficult to do themselves justice in the presence of 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 263 

their classmates. Under their emotional stress they are in- 
capable of clear expression and would prefer to work out 
their problems alone and present them in writing. Those 
who do best, on the other hand, when under the stimulus of 
their classmates are often disappointing when their turn 
comes to make a written report. Both are, to a certain 
extent, handicapped and it should be the aim of the school 
to give them corrective training. 

Concentrated and Distributed Attention. These 
forms of attention are both normal and necessary. The 
field of consciousness is often conceived of in the image of 
the field of vision. We may see a number of things at the 
same time, but some of them more clearly than others. The 
point in the field to which we direct the attention is clearer 
than any other point. The things which are farthest away 
from that point are in the margin of the field of vision 
and are least clearly seen; those between the point or 
focus and the margin are seen with different degrees of 
clearness. The consciousness has a similar character. The 
point to which we direct the attention is the focus of con- 
centration. The attention may be relatively narrowed and 
intensified in the conscious field or it may be distributed 
over a comparatively large portion. This is not because 
we are able to attend to two or more things at once but 
rather because the attention is capable of passing very 
rapidly from one thing to another. It is necessary for eflfi- 
ciency in life to cultivate both powers. With only the first 
the teacher will be absorbed in the lesson and will be men- 
tally absent from everything else in the room. This is not 
favorable to good control. The teacher with the alert at- 
tention will be able both to follow the lesson and know what 



264 Education and the General Welfare 

is going on in the remote corners of the room ; she will know 
even in a large class who is not paying attention or who is 
trying to give merely the appearance of paying attention. 
That this kind of attention is necessary in social life, busi- 
ness, and all administrative work needs no particular em- 
phasis. 

Causes of Mental Inefficiency. The work of the school 
may be such as to cause mental arrest and weakness instead 
of a growing control of the essential powers of the mind. 
We have seen that the two phases of attention just de- 
scribed are necessary to meet the ordinary situations that 
life presents. Let us imagine now the absence of one or the 
other of these powers of attention. If there is extreme dis- 
tribution with little or no concentration, we have the scat- 
tered or vacillating attention which is not anchored to any 
point of support. In its extreme form, the mind is incom- 
petent and powerless to produce definite results of any 
kind. On the other hand, if concentration is strong with 
little or no distribution, we have absent-mindedness of pos- 
sibly various degrees of seriousness. The scholar or the 
inventor, for instance, is so absorbed with his problem that 
he forgets his surroundings. The danger here lies only in 
the direction that might be taken by the focus of attention; 
it may be concentrated on an improper object. The healthy 
mind has the power to concentrate on the main duties and 
demands of life and will not waste its energies on evil 
thoughts. 

How Mental Power Is Weakened. We shall not con- 
sider here the mental aberrations that are best illustrated 
in the hospitals for the insane, although the fundamental 
principles are just the same, but the milder forms of the 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 265 

tendencies that weaken mind and character, with special 
reference to what may happen in school life. There are 
two recognized ways in which mental powers may be ar- 
rested or weakened : First, by concentration or exercise of 
attention on the improper, the abnormal, the unessential; 
Second, by a weakening of the power of concentration on 
account of a divided, unstable, or wavering attention due 
to uncertainty of purpose or indecision in regard to several 
possible modes of action. These topics will be taken up in 
order. The first relates in general to a loss of perspective 
in regard to the things of school and life. The mind of the 
school child may be exercised, as we shall see, only in the 
subordinate mental functions. Or it may linger on in- 
appropriate subject-matter. The efficient life is in harmony 
with social decency; the mind of the child is weakened by 
engaging his energies on matters that he would be ashamed 
to tell about. Nor should he dote on horrors, crimes, and 
catastrophies. Although attention will go where interest 
leads, the mind should finally dwell on the normal rather 
than the abnormal and exceptional, on justice rather than 
injustice, on the positive rather than the negative forces of 
life. 

Thinking of Self. Any habit of mind depends on re- 
peated use or indulgence of an impulse and on the material 
or object on which the effort made is employed. Attention 
has already been called in another chapter to the self -re- 
garding emotions as causing maladjustment between the in- 
dividual and his environment. It is not necessary to point 
out that the subjective contemplation of the self is a hin- 
drance to thinking and that it is not a proper object for the 
continued exercise of the mental powers. It is the business 
of the school to keep the pupils busy with either mental or 



266 Education and the General Welfare 

physical activities directed always into wholesome objective 
channels. 

The Practice of Thinking in School. A teacher or a 
pupil may magnify some non-essential school activity out of 
all proportion. He may mistake means for ends or em- 
phasize unduly any subject matter of subordinate character. 
The reason for the existence of any organ, function, or 
power is that there is use for it. The mind grows in the 
direction of use. If we read in a foreign language we 
learn to read in that language; if we speak a foreign lan- 
guage we learn to speak that foreign language. If we 
simply read without speaking, we do not learn to speak it. 
We can learn to do both if we practice in both. Children 
in school will learn to do what they get practice in doing. 
If they are stimulated to do thinking and are expected to do 
it, they will practice that function. If the school is so 
conducted as to give the lion's share of practice to functions 
that should be subordinated it misses its aim. Thinking is 
the most useful function for life that the school can exercise. 
It is also the most wholesome mental exercise ; for, directed 
upon the proper object, it strengthens the mind in its unity 
and integrity. It is always original and it makes for the 
development of mind and character. 

Substitutes for Thinking. But school work may not 
reach the level of thinking at all. There is not much doubt 
that some schools never for a moment get into the thinking 
field. Other powers that are useful only in surbordination 
are made the end of all activity. And there is a wide-spread 
misconception of the kind of work a school should do. One 
often hears, in discussions of excellence of mind, of great 
memories, exceptional powers of retention for words, for 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 267 

names, for lines of poetry or prose, or for dates in history, 
as if these things were the aim of education. 

Memory for Words. A strong verbal memory com- 
bined with imitative skill in language may have all the ap- 
pearance of wisdom. The teacher may flatter herself to 
learn how well the children get their lessons and how cor- 
rectly they write their examinations. If this is final in 
school, if the memory of words is made the end of school 
work, if this is the habit of mind that the pupil acquires, he 
will to a large extent waste his time. To keep the mind 
on this level is to arrest and weaken it. Children get into 
the habit of accepting words as if they had meanings that 
they understood. And this may happen through all the 
years of school life and through all the subjects studied. 

Memory of Words a Means to Higher Ends. There 
is a time, it is true, when it is altogether proper to give 
considerable attention to words and forms of language. In 
early life children hear much from their elders which they 
cannot justly comprehend until they have had more experi- 
ence in life. At this time they hear language that they after- 
ward fill with meaning. '' Thoughts are more important 
than words but words come first," as Erasmus put it. Lan- 
guage is not only a means of expression, but also a means of 
thinking. Children need words as a beginning step in get- 
ting meanings. In a new subject with technical terms and 
phrases peculiar to it, students need to pay close attention 
to the words of the book for a working vocabulary. To get 
the proper effect of the work of classic writers, who have 
given final form to noble thought, it is a good practice to 
memorize large passages of the text. In all these instances, 
however, the exercise is a means to higher ends. 



268 Education and the General Welfare 

Memory of Facts. Another use to which the mind is put 
is to remember facts. But if facts are not seen in relation to 
each other, the result will not be knowledge. Their accu- 
mulation in the memory will serve only for reproduction in 
mechanical sequence. It is like the memory of words on the 
page or their sound to the ear or their " feel " to the vocal 
organs. Students who are not accustomed to this kind of 
work often find it hard to get along in a school in which the 
chief emphasis is placed on verbal reproduction. They have 
put their minds to better use. They dread recitations, tests, 
and examinations which make exhaustive requirements of 
the memory, because they have learned by experience that 
it often proves treacherous. This kind of school practice 
is one of the few causes of educational overstrain. 

Memory for Relations. A memory for relations is the 
highest type of memory. It serves in reproducing one's own 
thought, or the thought of another. If it is not too far in 
the past, by means of the memory relations one's own 
thought will readily recur in its original or an improved 
order; all that is necessary for a cue to begin is some re- 
lated word or thought. The better the original organiza- 
tion of the thought, the easier will be its recall. 

In learning to reproduce the thought of another as in a 
speech, it is first necessary to go through the production and 
trace relations that exist between the points considered, from 
the first to the second and from the second to the third and 
so on, thus making a chain of relations that will hold to- 
gether and will be suggested in their order when beginning 
with the first point. With a very thorough study of the or- 
ganization any part may be suggested as a beginning, all the 
links in the chain will then fall in line. This is the way to 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 269 

study a history lesson or any other logical product. " The 
more true and natural the thought links are that are invented 
to bind one idea to another, the more lasting and the surer 
will be the recall/' ^ 

Thought links are much more powerful than those of mere 
association. If one would learn nonsense syllables quickly 
he must imagine connections of thought between them in 
order. 

" Man does not live to remember, and any system of education 
which appeals mainly to the memory has so far failed to meet its 
purpose. Man lives to think, to know, to feel, and to do, and to 
have constant pleasure in all these. Memory is only a means 
thereto. It is only the thoughts and knowledge embodied in words, 
only the beauty inherent in the symbols to be learnt, which we 
cherish." ^ 

Steps in Development of Thinking. If this is the pre- 
dominant attitude of the teacher, it will become the control- 
ing influence over the work of the school. But the memory 
for thought is so nearly identical with thinking that we 
ought to consider in more positive terms what the steps in 
the development of the thinking attitude are. 

To begin with, when a small child is asked to say what 
anything is, thought and language are identical, no distinc- 
tion being made between the name and the thing itself. If 
asked, '' What is a fork ? " the child will answer, '' A fork 
is a fork." It knows also what familiar things are not, 
that a fork is not a book. Later comes the definition of use, 
" The fork is to eat with." This is for a long time a child's 

1 Watt: ''The Economy and Training of Memory," third impression, 
New York, 1911, p. 109, Chap. VI, Longmans, Green and Company. 

2 Watt: op. cit. 



270 Education and the General Welfare 

means of readily defining any object within its experience. 
It is a good definition, too, as it fully supplies the mental 
need. It suggests also to the teacher that experience should 
come before definitions, distinctions, and explanations. As 
the child grows in experience and the use of language, ques- 
tions will arise as to the likeness and unlikeness of different 
objects; classifications will be made and analogies drawn 
on a somewhat higher plane. Sometimes the constructive 
fancy will be involved in a pretty conception, as when a child 
called a butterfly a flying pansy. 

It is not possible to say at what age a child begins to man- 
ifest certain tendencies of thought except in a very general 
way. It is certain, however, that in the lower grades the 
thinking tendencies should find expression in spontaneous 
language, in connection with exercises in language play and 
in conversation. Thoughts should not be " extracted " from 
children. In the lower grades to stimulate expression is to 
stimulate thinking. There must be perfect freedom and tol- 
erance for all childlike crudities of thought. 

The Spirit of Inquiry Is Essential to Thinking. The 
children of all grades should be encouraged to ask questions. 
In the lower grades the questions asked are often such that 
perhaps no one could answer satisfactorily. Here the chil- 
dren seem to have unlimited confidence in what the teacher 
knows. A little girl came running to her teacher to ask her, 
''Who was the wisest man?" The teacher answered 
thoughtfully that it was usually held that Solomon was the 
wisest man, whereupon the little girl exclaimed gratefully : 
" I just knew you'd know." In the upper grades the chil- 
dren believe 'that the teacher knows nearly everything and 
this checks the spirit of inquiry. In all the grades it is es- 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 271 

pecially important that the teacher says frankly that he does 
not know, when such is the case. When the teacher knows 
everything there is no object in finding out anything to tell 
to the class. 

A supervisor of practice on finding a class he visited rather 
unresponsive asked one of the pupils in the course of the 
recitation to ask the teacher a question which the super- 
visor whispered to him. The teacher somewhat embar- 
rassed had to admit she did not know. Then at once every 
child was wide awake to find out. They were ready to make 
a general scramble for the reference books. Here was 
something worth finding oiit when no one in the room knew 
it. 

Ordinarily, when the teacher knows it all and everything 
is settled the whole atmosphere is unfavorable to thinking. 
The teacher should think out plans to have certain informa- 
tion which is new brought into class by the pupils in the 
higher grades. There is hardly any subject that does not 
afford opportunities. And let the teacher dispel the idea 
that any one knows everything. Rather let it be known 
that we are all on the very frontier of the known and the 
unknown in every subject. Of even the commonest things 
like dogs and cats and grains of wheat and flowers, etc., 
there is much that nobody knows. Let the teacher try to 
elicit information from the children on subjects they know 
about but that she may be ignorant of. It is practically true 
that every person has made observations that have not come 
within the experience of any one else. 

To establish the thinking attitude much will depend on 
the tone and tempo of the teacher s questioning. If the 
questions are '' shot " at the pupil in quick succession with 



272 Education and the General Welfare 

little allowance of time for a thoughtful reply, the impres- 
sion is made that no such reply is expected. If the tone of 
the questioner is, '' Here, you, what do you know 
about — ?" the suggestion of a lack of deference to the 
pupil as a thinking individual will inhibit the thought pro- 
cesses. To be sure, there is a part of the body of knowl- 
edge that every one is expected to know and know on de- 
mand. There can be no doubt or uncertainty about the 
number of quarts in a peck or the rule of verbal agreement 
which custom has permanently settled. But it is well in 
other fields to assume that the mystery of the unknown 
touches our life at every point and invites discovery; that 
things about us ask : 

" What is our origin and our destiny, how are we caused and con- 
stituted and what effects do we produce, what do we depend on, 
what are our relations and our qualities, how do we live, grow, and 
change, and how do we serve you ? " 

This should be our attitude to the meaning of things. 
When we come to the general statements found in the lit- 
erature we read we should try to verify them. The teacher 
should dispel the common indifference to statements that 
challenge belief. The question now is simply " Is the state- 
ment true? " that is, '' How does it square with our experi- 
ence? " 

The time will come when we should expect the pupil to 
follow a chain of thought or reasoning. In our progress 
onward in the development of the thinking pupil, we have 
advanced from the small child's extremely narrow span of 
thinking consciousness, when things are regarded as isolated 
and meanings are given in terms of identity, to an ever en- 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 273 

larging grasp of connected wholes. Thinking the relations 
that exist between facts acquired unifies and organizes the 
mental content and, as we have seen before, gives the mind 
the power of retention in its highest degree. The following 
facts, for instance, may be seen in isolation : increased cost 
of living, men zvithdrawn from industry, advance in price of 
products of labor, call for troops, increased price of labor. 

I 
They may be seen as a connected whole : call for troops, men 

2 3 

withdrawn from industry, price of labor, price of the prod- 

4 5 
ucts of labor, increased cost of living. There might be more 
links in the chain with the fifth remaining the same or 
the chain might be indefinitely lengthened. The relation 
between i and 2, i and 3, i and 4, i and 5, are seen with in- 
creasing difficulty. Let this typical case suggest the two 
forms of thinking that may be carried on in the school: 
First, a chain of cause and effect may be constructed begin- 
ning with some fact and adding others in order : i n. 

Second, two more or less remotely related facts may be 

given, the problem being to supply the missing links : i 5. 

The work of the school will always afford material for prob- 
lems of this kind. 

The more purely constructive type of thinking requires an 
assembling of thought material to satisfy the demands of a 
previously conceived plan or design. This is illustrated in 
the industrial and the fine arts where wood, stone, color, or 
other material is used to realize the idea. The most familiar 
example of this kind of work in school is the constructive 
use of language in the story, the poem, the essay, the debate, 



274 Education and the General Welfare 

or the theme. These are formidable names to most school 
children, and yet the exercises which they represent are car- 
ried on in informal ways in all the grades. Essentially, con- 
structive thinking is reorganizing a set of relations for a 
new purpose. Or it may take the form of combining several 
sets of relations to form a new order of thought. 

Constructive Use of Knowledge. In one form or an- 
other, in schools in which the right kind of work is done, 
constructive thinking is done in nearly all the subjects. It 
takes place every time the thought gathered from a book is 
related to the facts of life, every time a general principle 
discovered by a pupil is applied to new-found instances, and 
every time one branch of study serves as a means to aid in 
the mastery of another. Reorganization implies the power 
of original dissociation before there can be a re-combination. 
In simpler language, this means that the highest effect of 
knowledge is the power to do something with it. It should 
be the aim in all the grades to find use for what is learned. 
To make constructive use of what is acquired, whether it be 
in Latin or arithmetic, is the natural intent and final act of 
study. This does not mean that some time in perhaps the 
distant future a study will become useful. It means rather 
that what we gain from it will find use in our present proj- 
ects and purposes of study and thinking. It relates to theo- 
retical as well as to practical needs. 

What the Mind Is For. This is the mind's part in the 
business of life. As eyes are for seeing and ears for hear- 
ing so the mind is for thinking. And all the other functions 
and powers are contributary to it. It is the main purpose 
of discipline and management to make the conditions favor- 
able for the exercise of this function. But all real thinking 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 275 

is original. " You can lead a person to knowledge, but you 
cannot make him think." 

Control of Attention. We have discussed what are the 
proper objects of thought and what is the proper function of 
the mind. We turn now to the control of attention when 
directed upon a proper object of thought. It is a common 
experience to find pupils who work faithfully on a proper 
object of thought and yet succeed in obtaining only the most 
meager results. They want to think but they lack the power 
of concentration. This is the second cause of mental ineffi- 
ciency, which was said before to be due to a divided, un- 
stable, or wavering attention. This is a weakness of whose 
cause students will always be ignorant unless by psychologi- 
cal self -analysis they come to discover it or have others dis- 
cover it for them. To know the cause of the disturbance 
is the first step in effecting a cure, if a cure is possible. 

Attention, as is well known, follows interest. We might 
well counsel a student who really wants to do what he is 
doing — " Assume an interest if you have it not." One can 
try to find attractions and uses in a forbidding subject, fall 
back on one's pride and confidence in his powers that will 
not be " beaten " by any task undertaken, or think that 
" if others can master it I can." Children sometimes take a 
fatalistic attitude that makes an initial interest or disinterest 
final. They should not get the impression from their 
parents and teachers that the fates have decided for them 
what they can or cannot do. This is one of those subjective 
attitudes that are unfavorable to development. It is a much 
better sign if children always show an unquestioning eager- 
ness to attack. 

It often happens, too, that a subject is not given a fair 



276 Education and the General Welfare 

trial. Children do not approach it in good humor and do 
not give it sufficient time and attention to find out whether 
it is likeable or not. Intellectual light will make almost any 
subject beautiful. It is also true that interest follows at- 
tention. 

Inner and Outer Factors of Attention. To be able to 
hold the attention to any subject and shift it at will from 
one thing to another is the chief sign of mental control. 
But conditions are possible when no person can exercise at- 
tention for a long time. There are always two factors, an 
inner and an outer. If the outer factor is small, as, for 
instance, the point of a pin, no one can hold the attention to 
it for more than a few seconds. If the inner factor is small 
due to lack of experience and interest, the attention will 
also not long be held to an object. If the object of attention 
is such as to give the inner or subjective factor much room 
to enlarge itself upon it, as in the case of a book and a 
reader, a picture and an artist, a problem and a mathema- 
tician, attention may be held to it for perhaps hours at a 
time. 

Attention and Stillness. The child's normal attention 
is weak because of its limited experience. And while it 
tries to fix the thought it can command on a book or other 
object, the attention is easily disturbed. There are so many 
things that are more attractive. Every unusual sight or 
sound distracts. To make a noise seems a delightful diver- 
sion at all times. The schoolroom must be quiet, but only 
so far that no one is disturbed. A deadly stillness so that 
one can hear a pin drop, the old-fashioned ideal of order of 
forty years ago, is not favorable to the best kind of work. 
Still work is unnatural for children in the elementary school. 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 2yy 

And it has been found by experiment that the best work is 
accompHshed when there is a business-Hke noise going on. 

Concentration Weakened by Impulse to Be Active. 
And then distractions come because of the impulse to be 
active when the matter in hand gives no opportunity for it. 
Children ask to leave the room or make other excuses simply 
to move about and relieve the tedium of sitting still. And 
when asked to run an errand that takes them into the open 
air for a little while, they are always overjoyed with this 
sign of the teacher's special favor. 

Concentration Weakened by Anticipations and Mem- 
ories. Distractions are also due to anticipations of some 
future joy or to the memory of past experiences more pleas- 
ant to contemplate than the problem in hand. It is such 
emotional experiences as these that work havoc with pres- 
ent efficiency. This is particularly true of the emotional 
type of child. The continuing emotional tone will work its 
way subconsciously into the fabric of the present thought 
and will weaken the attention on the present problem. The 
result may be a general weakening of the attention or it may 
be a straying away and a returning of the attention to the 
present thought. Every child is familiar with this charac- 
teristic of the weakened attention to the matter in hand. 
Every one finds it hard after a long vacation to settle down 
to the study of a book; the mind keeps wandering back to 
past delights. And in the spring near the end of the year 
when children anticipate freedom from school and there are 
exercises and other signs of the school year's close, children 
again find it hard to keep at their studies until the very end. 

Chief Sign of Mental Strength. When children and 
teachers give way to these emotional influences they under- 



278 Education and the General Welfare 

mine the power of attention. It is good that the matter 
is no worse, that the disturbing emotions are cheerful. If 
grief over the past or fear of the future weaken attention to 
the present need, the condition is a more serious one. An 
emotion or feeHng appropriate to the occasion tends to unify 
thought; rivalry between several emotions tends to scatter 
it. To be able to hold the attention to the present and shut 
out the past and the future at will is the chief sign of mental 
strength. This should be one of the aims of discipline. 
Children should practice shutting out of the mind the things 
of the past as well as the things of the future and learn to 
employ their full powers on present realities. In case of 
fears they should hold to the maxim of Sir Thomas More : 

If evils come not then our fears are vain, 
And if they do fear but augments the pain. 

Mistakes in Double-Track Thinking. Emotional dis- 
turbances are often the unrecognized cause of a waste of 
much energy by both pupil and teacher. Teachers fre- 
quently give drill exercises in such subjects as numbers and 
English, and require a certain amount of written work to be 
handed in. They take the papers home and their nightly 
task is to correct many of the same mistakes over and over 
again. The children do not seem to profit by the drill. An 
explanation of the difficulty seems to be this : the desired 
effect of the drill becomes the cause of the errors made. It 
is intended to make the number combinations and the proper 
English forms an automatic possession of the child. The 
more automatic they become, the more they will be like any 
other exercise of this kind, such, for instance, as piano 
playing. The player can in time talk while playing. Now, 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 279 

if one is not interested in the playing but rather in the talk- 
ing the wrong keys will occasionally be struck. In the same 
way in the other exercises. Numbers and English forms 
may be known automatically, but then they will be just the 
place where mistakes will be made if while working the 
exercises the child's other interests and emotions cause in- 
terference in the orderly associations that have been so pain- 
fully acquired. 

Exercise to Increase Power of Concentration. In- 
stead of repeating the same errors day after day, the chil- 
dren should learn why they make the same mistakes again 
and again, and the teacher should give them drills in con- 
centrating their attention on every present exercise. Chil- 
dren must think about what they are doing. They do not 
have to scatter their energies on two trains of mental opera- 
tions. The teacher must insist that they keep their minds 
strictly on what they are doing. That is the proper way to 
use the mind. It is the kind of exercise that increases the 
power of concentration. 

The Divided Attention. In all these cases it is tem- 
porary and changing interests that interfere with the de- 
mands of the hour. The outside attractions that take the 
mind from the school work are not the same from day to day. 
A divided attention on permanent rival interests has more 
serious consequences, and it brings about marked symptoms 
of inefificiency. In the more extreme forms it leads to patho- 
logical states and mental breakdown. But" this rarely hap- 
pens among school children. 

Indecision, however, a sort of attention rivalry, is one of 
the common causes of inefficiency in every day life. One 
may be undecided as to what to think, what to say, or what 



28o Education and the General Welfare 

to do. As a result usually of bad training children hesitate 
about everything and are sure of nothing. They are ineffi- 
cient in thinking because they have been allowed to acquire 
the habit of reading in the teacher's expressive countenance 
whether to say yes or no. They look for the familiar nod 
of approval rather than think much on the question to be 
answered. In certain schools a rising inflection of doubt in 
answering all questions has become a settled mannerism, 
which means " I am not at all sure of this and don't pretend 
to know, so I am really asking you." To assent to what 
one hears is an easy escape from the trouble to think. 

Importance of Being Certain. To prevent this ten- 
dency children should be trained to initiate thought, lessons 
must not be too long, and the tempo of the school work must 
not be too fast. They should be trained in time to arrive 
at such a degree of certainty in their conclusions that they 
would be willing to defend them against the contention of 
any one even including the teacher. It is not for them to 
worry over the questions of an examination for fear that 
they may not say in answer what the teacher might want. 
It is rather their part of the work to determine what the 
questions ought to mean and then give the answer that is 
certainly correct, whoever in the wide world shall happen 
to read it. Children must learn in school that whatever 
is right, is right in spite of any person. It is an im- 
portant day in his training when a child becomes sure of 
something. 

Indecision as Reflected in School Work. Indecision 
and a wavering attention is indicated on the written page 
not alone in the confusion of ideas found upon it but even 
in the variant forms of penmanship, ink blots and blurs, and 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 281 

a writing that straggles over the margins at the side, top, 
and bottom. This kind of work is characteristic of the 
emotional temperament and is often attended by great ex- 
citement. It is a condition that may be observed among 
students of high school age and above that during the 
period of examinations. There are those who would say 
that the system of examinations is at fault; it is rather the 
fault of habitual indecision. A teacher reports that this con- 
dition was relieved after a long and careful study of such a 
case by explaining to the student the nature of the difficulty 
and then simply adding " Now, stop it." This was done at 
the very beginning of the examination in a low tone of 
voice so that no one else heard it. The result was altogether 
favorable. Later after every examination, the student left 
the room in a calm frame of mind and her papers were 
greatly improved. In another instance where the confu- 
sion of mind ended in an outburst of weeping, the same 
plan was pursued with the result that the student resumed 
work on the exaimination and succeeded in passing it. 

Home Training in Indecision. Habitual indecision be- 
tween courses of action presents serious possibilities. It is 
also a result of neglected training. When children are 
young they manifest healthy impulses to action in their prob- 
lems of conduct. In time these are weakened by the par- 
ental tendency to forbid all their proposals, projects, or plans. 
In their attempts to carry out a course of action to its con- 
clusion, the children are met with an indiscriminate " You 
mustn't " or '' You can't." This begets an attitude of re- 
pression to their impulses and increases timidity and self- 
consciousness. Thus, not gaining practice in meeting the 
situations presented in alternative courses of conduct, they 



282 Education and the General Welfare 

become indifferent to the issues of life or they become power- 
less to decide rationally what is best for them to do and 
instead of thinking out their own problems take refuge in 
some one's advice. If the matter is too trivial for that, or 
if it is a secret which out of self-respect must not be di- 
vulged, they will never be certain of the course to take, or if 
they do act they are usually self-conscious and awkward. 
Thus '' function is smothered in surmise . . ." and '' enter- 
prises of great pitch and moment . . . lose the name of 
action." 

Facing and Settling Problems. Suppose two possible 
modes of action present themselves. There are several ways 
of not meeting the problem. One may suppress both and 
remain inactive. One may act on one and suppress the 
other. One may act on both alternately, that is, suppress 
now one and now the other. In none of these cases do we 
get clear of one of the alternatives, they only sink into the 
subconsciousness. In no one of these cases do we arrive at 
a clear and final decision, the buried impulses are still alive 
and keep the purpose unsettled and the power of execution 
blunted. Finally, another and the proper way to meet the 
situation is to meet it frankly and fully, facing it with all 
the vigor of our best powers of thought and deciding what 
we should do, and then doing it. This. is the way to be true 
to one's self and not " be false to any man." Thus we 
choose one course of action and root out the tendencies to do 
the other. This is a way to clear up '' misunderstandings," 
to accept a belief, and to decide on a proper course of action. 
To meet and solve the problems of conduct is one of the 
nonmal responsibilities of life. If we shirk or refuse to 
accept them, penalties are exacted of different degrees of 



Mental Development Through Attitudes 283 

severity from the normal forms of indecision and disturb- 
ances of attention to imad-house insanity. 

The hygiene and discipline of the mind is one of the most 
important phases of school management. We have long 
known the kind of discipline in the home and the school that 
had for its chief injunction the warning '' Keep still." If 
this were all of discipline the problem would be easy to solve 
by force and would not require any thought or discrimina- 
tion on the part of the teacher. But we have not alone 
moral but also mental characters to deal with during the 
most impressionable years of life. We should know what 
the conditions of mental activity really are, what attitudes to 
establish, what to make the object of attention, what to 
subordinate, what to avoid, and how to prevent hindrances 
to concentration and to decision of character. 



CHAPTER XVII 
The Individual and the Group 

Society does not teach behavior by formal instruction, 
but ignorance of its written and unwritten laws excuses no 
one from its penalties. Manners, customs, statutes — the 
rules of the group — are instituted to control the emotions 
of the individual. In mental discipline control must come 
from within, a person must take himself in hand; thinking 
is original. In social discipline, the individual profits by 
association with others; he learns to limit his desires for 
the good of all and to revise his ideas by correction with 
those of his equals, and he gains ultimately the civic virtue of 
obedience to the will of the people and the voice of ma- 
jorities. 

The school is so organized that it can give this training by 
practice. In fact, it cannot help giving some kind of train- 
ing in the social order. It is in itself a society in which, 
as in society at large, the same laws control and both teacher 
and pupil are under their dominion. 

Limitations of Freedom. The group limits the freedom 
of the individual. The larger this group the greater the 
limitation. The small child longs for the freedom of the 
older children and these for the freedom of their elders. 
In time all come to learn that there is no person in the wide 
world who can do as he pleases. It is a familiar thought 

284 



The Individual and the Group 285 

that the universe of time and space imposes its limitations on 
human endeavor. The best we can do is to make a sort 
of compromise. We adjust ourselves to times and seasons 
and make our lives beat in the rhythms of the universe. 
We work by day and rest by night, we sow in spring to reap 
in summer. Nature exacts the severest penalties for being 
behind time. To get the habit of going to sleep at sundown 
and rising at dawn is the beginning of the moral life in the 
young child as well as a benefit to the health. To eat and 
sleep at regular intervals is for all persons to draw on the 
rhythmic forces of nature for health and enjoyment. Keep- 
ing regular hours has a distinct relation to character 
growth. The school as well as the home throws around the 
child certain limitations of conduct, the full significance of 
which he is not able to comprehend. In these things the 
child needs the direction of the parent and the teacher. 

The Teacher in Relation to the School. The school is 
a group of which the teacher also is a part. The only im- 
portant difference between him and the other members of 
the group is due to the fact that by virtue of his experience 
he knows lines of conduct whose value he can more fully 
comprehend than they. In these matters he commands their 
obedience on the ground of their confidence in his wisdom. 

The School an Organic Unit. The school is also to be 
looked upon as a little community united for a common use- 
ful purpose. The teacher is the head or leader through 
whom all the parts of the organization are coordinated and 
through whom all the activities are systematized. Each 
pupil should feel that he has a place in the system, a part to 
perform that is in a way indispensable. The different ac- 
tivities of the school should reveal such an evident purpose- 



286 Education and the General Welfare 

fulness that those who engage in them should see the rela- 
tion of what they do to the good of the whole school. This 
is a higher principle of action than mere blind obedience and 
thus has educational value in itself. The teacher himself 
is obedient to this principle. He too is loyal to what is best 
for all, and he does not expect and will not countenance a 
personal loyalty to himself when it does not mean faithful- 
ness to the highest purpose for which the school exists. He 
does not play the role of the benevolent despot. The pur- 
pose of the school should, as far as possible, be uppermost 
in the minds of all, teacher and pupils alike, and he who is 
sincerely loyal to that purpose exercises the highest type of 
allegiance. 

Danger in the Strong Personality. The strong per- 
sonality may not be an unmixed blessing in the schoolroom. 
An unobtrusive director is better for the children than a 
domineering leader. Children should not get the idea that 
unbecoming behavior annoys the teacher, but that it disturbs 
the work of the school. The work that is done should not 
seem to please the teacher : " Let us " is a better form of 
assignment than " I want you to." And the teacher will 
not be opinionated. He will not dogmatize too much. His 
mind will be open for further evidence. He will not begin 
instruction with conclusions and results, for this will para- 
lyze activity of the right kind among the pupils. When 
everything is done, when opinions are fixed, when the truths 
are all defined to begin with, what can students do but com- 
mit to memory generalized statements and at best try to 
corroborate what the books and the teacher are sure of? 

Teacher's Duty to the Group. As a part of the school 
communitv, it is the teacher's duty to the group to be punc- 



The Individual and the Group 287 

tual in all ^his engagements. He must not only be on time 
but he must be ready for work on time. This will require 
preparation of material in advance and having the plans for 
work ready when needed. The teacher will begin to plan 
before the first day of school. He will visit the neighbor- 
hood and learn of the character of the people. An inter- 
view might be had with the last teacher of the school, or the 
county superintendent, or the principal if the school is in a 
city district. If it is learned that for some reason no ma- 
terial will be available at the beginning of the session, the 
teacher will have time to plan to get along without this help. 
Under no circumstances should the children be dismissed the 
first day without anything done nor should they be excused 
before the closing time. The teacher and the children should 
begin the work on schedule time. Any other practice may 
invite dawdling throughout the year. The first day is the 
most exacting of all upon the teacher's skill in management. 
First impressions are important, and the teacher should be 
careful to initiate only such attitudes to the work of the 
school as are desired to be permanent throughout the year. 

Training for Grroup Activity. Degrees of civilization 
and enlightenment may be measured by the number of people 
that can live together for the common good. The young 
infant comes into the world without the power of adapta- 
tion and subjects the whole family group to its needs. As 
it grows older it adjusts itself more and more to the wishes 
of the group until its rights are balanced by its duties as in 
the case of any other member of the family. On going to 
school to join a larger group, the child faces a critical period 
of life. And the school is only a step to the life in the 
larger community in which he lives. Here the child is sup- 



288 Education and the General Welfare 

posed to learn to become also a member of the larger com- 
munities, as the city, the state, and the nation. Savage 
tribes are capable of only a limited extension of their mental 
and social horizon. The " lower savages " are said to have 
the power of combining in hordes of only about forty, the 
next rank combine to the number of one hundred and fifty, 
the next three hundred and sixty ; the " lower barbarians " 
can live in towns of a thousand inhabitants and the " lower 
cultured " in cities of six million inhabitants. Only races 
capable of union have succeeded in perpetuating themselves.^ 
To become truly citizens of the world requires a culture and 
training of which not all are capable. 

From Family to School. To make the adjustment from 
the family to the larger group of the school is attended with 
considerable difficulty. The laws of the smaller group are 
different from those of the larger. The children of the same 
family are likely to be communistic at home with respect to 
familiar things to eat and wear. They are individualistic 
in regard to novelties. They are likely to quarrel over the 
possession of a new toy. When the novelty has worn off, 
the toy falls to the communistic level. In school to use pen- 
cils, towels, etc., in common is forbidden as unhygienic; its 
consequences may be very serious. In the home to pick up 
money of the more familiar denominations that happens to 
lie around, and use it, is perhaps a pardonable fault; in 
school, the same act is criminal. 

Group Efficiency Requires System. In the smaller 
group an order of procedure may not be necessary ; in the 
larger group it saves time and confusion. In school there 

1 Sutherland : " Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, Vol. I, p. 
366, Longmans, Green and Company. 



The Individual and the Group 289 

must be a time and place for everything. The child must 
learn the difference between mine and thine with respect to 
space as well as to property. There must be a place for 
the child's things, a locker or clothes hook, and he must 
keep it as a possession and no one must appropriate it. 
There must be a time to do certain things and a time not 
to do them. At home a child can be more free from re- 
strictions. Those children who come from well regulated 
families make the transition to the larger group with less 
difficulty than others. If the children at home are required 
to be on time at their meals and on retiring at night they 
are likely to be prompt at school. 

In school there must be an orderly procedure to expedite 
work, to exhibit an example of the way to do things, and to 
inculcate orderly habits. With the larger group this be- 
comes particularly necessary in order to curb individual haste 
and impatience. This kind of training is also necessary for 
its effect upon individual efficiency. When one has a num- 
ber of things to do he is wise to classify them and do 
them in a certain order. We economize time by remember- 
ing our different errands and we plan to do them so as not to 
do more walking than necessary. We arrange the places in 
order and do the errands in orderly succession. We use 
pigeon-holes and desks with drawers so that we can dis- 
tribute the things we need in order, so that we may become 
accustomed to finding them in the same place each time and 
habituate our movements, thus saving time and energy 
which we need for other things. On the same principle, in 
school " We have a place for everything and every thing in 
its place," not simply because some one told us or because 
we read it in a book, but because we know we can accom- 



2go Education and the General Welfare 

plish more this way and the children need it as an exhibi- 
tion of order in community Hfe. 

In school, children learn to act together in larger and 
larger groups as the years go by. From the very first they 
learn to do certain things at the same time. They assemble 
promptly and without individual exception at the time of 
opening the session. They are dismissed at the same time. 
In order to avoid confusion with large numbers of children 
an order of procedure is initiated in which each child has 
to wait his turn. This the teacher plans for in advance 
and with such care and forethought that it may not have to 
be changed after it once is instituted. An order of pro- 
cedure succeeds only if it affects all the children alike and 
if it is repeated without exception until it becomes habitual. 
To contribute its part to community orderliness is an im- 
portant part of the child's training. 

Distinguishing Constants and Variables. It is an 
economy to the individual and the group to anticipate in this 
way what it is known will recur again and again in order to 
have greater freedom to attend to those things which re- 
quire our best thought. It is a useful principle to divide 
the activities that confront us into those that are repeated 
and those that are not — into constants and variables. The 
former we habituate ourselves to so that we can do them 
without thinking and apply ourselves to the things of life 
whose character we can never predict. This is a lesson for 
the school to exemplify. The first few days or weeks of 
school life before the routine activities have become estab- 
lished are the most trying to teacher and pupils. They pass 
but slowly. Attention at first must be scattered over numer- 
ous details that afterward become automatic and subside 



The Individual and the Group 291 

from the consciousness. Then the days pass more rapidly 
and the mind is more free to concentrate on matters that can- 
not be anticipated or prepared for. 

The Appeal to Reason. Training for group activity 
should be on a rational basis. As far as possible children 
should understand the reasons that underlie orderly conduct 
in a group. The future citizens should get into the habit of 
acting on principle, in obedience to reason and law, and not 
on impulses of personal likes and dislikes. Every activity of 
the school should have a reasonable motive which the child 
can understand. In group discipline the principles of con- 
duct in a community gain control over the children of the 
school and the proper habits are acquired for a decent civil 
Hfe. 

The Individual and the Group in Class Work. The 
practice of teaching children together in classes came rela- 
tively late in the history of instruction. As late as the be- 
ginning of the eighteenth century children were taught indi- 
vidually. Although they were instructed in the same room 
and by the same teacher, they were called up one by one to 
the teacher's desk to recite their lessons. The advantages of 
having children work together in the same class are of vari- 
ous kinds. More ground can be covered by means of the 
class organization, and it is a financial economy to accom- 
modate many pupils at the same time so as to reduce the 
number of teachers that have to be engaged and remuner- 
ated. Individual '' coaching " is superior when preparation 
is hurried and the matter is to be retained only until exam- 
inations are over. Good class work should '' season " 
knowledge and make it more usable. 

There is, of course, an advantage of a social character in 



292 Education and the General Welfare 

the method of class instruction. It brings the children in 
close mental relation to each other ; they are rivals or help- 
ers to the teacher or to each other, thus contributing their 
part to the common knowledge of the whole group. The 
spirit of emulation is a means to spur individuals on to 
greater effort. It is useful in competitive games on sub- 
jects requiring much drill. The class organization also af- 
fords opportunity for group divisions who select portions 
of work to do independently of each other, which they re- 
port upon to the whole class. 

Individual vs. Class Teaching. In class work there are 
two complementary factors. If the effort of the teacher is 
directed to the whole class as such it is superficial and inef- 
fectual; if it is directed to individuals in turn it becomes 
exclusive and narrow. The proper kind of class work 
reaches the individual through the class and the class through 
the individuals. There is no way of reaching the whole 
class without reaching the individual members. The best 
teaching never loses sight of the fact that instruction and 
training never reach the mark unless they come home to each 
person. In the matter of attention, each individual must 
exercise it whether it be to a demonstration by the teacher or 
by one of the pupils. 

Individual and Social Elements in the Formal Recita- 
tion. Knowledge is founded on experience, and experience 
is individual. As illustrated in the process of perception, 
the new object of sense must be interpreted with something 
remembered. But the remembered experience is an individ- 
ual matter. In applying this principle in gaining knowledge, 
the individual experience must therefore be the key to the un- 
derstanding of the new. Hence each student must have 



The Individual and the Group 2g^ 

perfect freedom to use his experience in the recitation, for 
it is his only means of understanding and appreciation. 
This is the individual side of class work. Arousing mem- 
ories of experiences that pertain to the, matter in hand is 
also the first of the steps of the formal recitation. Group 
activity comes next into play. The members of the class 
A, B, C, etc., in bringing their different experiences to bear 
on the subject of study will necessarily bring out differences 
and resemblances which will enrich the total concept in the 
minds of all. This is made possible by the fact that A, B, C, 
etc., work together. They may now, as a next step, together 
frame and criticize a generalized statement on what they 
have together learned of the subject of study. The final 
form of statement is such as can be verbally remembered. 
It is also understood. It may now be applied to other 
instances. In this last step each can again work by 
himself.^ 

If each of the students contributes his part to the whole 
procedure and gives his full attention to the contributions 
of the others, the knowledge gained is as complete as it 
practically can be; if this is not the case there is no magic 
power in the social situation presented by the class that 
can bring it about. In short, learning in a class can come 
about only through the interested cooperation of all the in- 
dividuals of the class. 

Value of Class Criticism. Criticism, or the judgment 
of excellence, on the part of the pupils can function best in 
the class organization. The reading or speaking that chil- 
dren do should be directed to the class, not to the teacher. 
It might well be made a general rule that a pupil always 
1 Compare the Herbartian steps of the recitation. 



294 Education and the General Welfare 

directs his attention to the class and never to the teacher. 
The teacher is not a good audience, for he knows already 
what should be said and hence there is no proper motive to 
tell him. The object in reciting to a teacher is usually as- 
sumed to be for a test of correctness of form. While the 
main concern of the teacher is whether the pupil is right 
and uses the proper forms of expression, the pupil's atten- 
tion must be directed to giving the substance of thought. In 
the class exercise the form side is properly subordinated to 
the content. That is, it is better for the child to get the 
habit of thinking what he is going to say than to be think- 
ing how he ought to say it. Directing his remarks to the 
class favors the former attitude. 

Establishing Class Standards. Even as critics of form 
the classmates are more effective than the teacher. The 
teacher knows ; he ought to know, of course. The pupil will 
not measure himself by the attainments of the teacher. 
But it is a challenge to his pride to lay himself open to cor- 
rection by a classmate who should not know more about the 
matter than himself. The pupil will forget the teacher's 
criticism but will likely remember distinctly that a classmate 
was able to correct him and what he was corrected for. 
Comparison of themselves with others of the class is the 
most concrete way children have of measuring their indi- 
vidual progress. The teacher should manage to have pupils 
set high standards of excellence in class work. The intel- 
lectual leaders should go first. When any new form of 
work is undertaken, the more capable students should lead 
the way. This establishes the class expectation of a high 
standard of work. It will not do to let the weaker ones set 
the pace. These can follow, and they will more readily rise 



The Individual and the Group 295 

to the standard set by a classmate than they would to one 
set by the teacher. 

Cooperative Class Work. The class organization also 
gives opportunities for joint work of other kinds. A read- 
ing lesson is often much improved when a dramatic render- 
ing is improvised. The class may engage in other common 
projects, such as a program of entertainment for other 
classes, exhibitions of skill in the manual arts or in gym- 
nastic exercises. Now the class spirit is drawn on to mo- 
tivate endeavor. This form of exercise has its weak side 
in that it does not draw on the capability of the individual 
members of the class in the same degree. There will always 
be favorite parts in a dramatic representation which all want 
to take. And repetitions with change of parts cannot well 
be carried on with a constant degree of interest. 

Group Appreciations. The group organization has spe- 
cial advantages in the field of appreciation. Sharing the 
good in pictures, music, and the drama multiplies enjoyment 
and gives opportunity for discriminative discussions of ex- 
cellence. The interest and enthusiasm of a few may affect 
the whole group. In this way the more stolid temperaments 
may be reached that would otherwise remain unresponsive. 

Weakening Initiative and Power of Attack. The class 
situation is sometimes looked upon as a means of creating 
social opportunities of mutual assistance. It is held that 
this begets an attitude of helpfulness which is indispensable 
to a well-ordered community life. There are, however, two 
sides to the situation, that of the helper and that of those 
who are helped. During the class period helping others 
gives the public presumption of superiority to those who en- 
gage in it and stimulates their energies. On the other hand, 



296 Education and the General Welfare 

while it may be a wholesome hint to those who have neg- 
lected to do their work during the study period, its value is 
limited for those who always need assistance. It offers a 
means of escape from individual initiative and diminishes 
the power of attack. It should rather be understood that 
the lessons are to be individually prepared before the time of 
the class period and that the class period proper is the occa- 
sion when individual preparations are subjected by all to re- 
view and criticism. The lesson of mutual helpfulness 
should not be the aim but rather the by-product of this test 
of the results of preparation. 

Group Preparation. Study in preparation for an as- 
signment, however, need not always be carried on individ- 
ually and alone. Drill exercises may be helpfully practiced 
together. Drill in numbers or language forms or in any 
other field in which facts are final and unchanging can be 
conducted by the students themselves. Lessons in apprecia- 
tion of classic literature often give increased enjoyment when 
students read to each other. 

Intellectual and Social Value of Intensive Class Work. 
When pupils answer questions, recite, or report upon work, 
an opportunity is offered in the class period to cultivate the 
power to concentrate and the power and patience to listen to 
what others have to say, that is unrivaled by any other ex- 
ercise. It has both intellectual and social value ; it is neces- 
sary for the power of continuous thought and it is a social 
courtesy. While the class work continues, the pupil must at- 
tend to what is going on. When inattention is revealed by 
the blank, far-away look, which cannot deceive the teacher, 
or in other and more overt ways, the intermittent question 
should bring back the wandering attention. There is a time 



The Individual and the Group 297 

for rest and recreation; there must also be a time for 
strenuous work as well as play. The state compels the 
physical presence of the children in the school at great ex- 
pense to the citizens; if their mental presence is not also 
assured, there is loss all around. Under good discipline 
the school manages to have something to do that is worth 
while and to have it done in a whole-hearted way. 

Loss of Individual in the Group. When classes become 
too large many of the advantages of this form of school 
work are lost. Under this condition the group phase out- 
weighs the individual phase of the work. Writers on the 
subject have usually given thirty as the maximum size of the 
class. When classes are much larger, the individual ele- 
ments composing the group are to a certain extent lost and 
instruction becomes rigid and mechanical. 

Group Consistency. Even though a class is not too 
large, the work done will not reach all the members if the 
group lacks consistency. The principle that unifies a group 
in school is equality of its members in the grade of advance- 
ment. Even in large cities where the numbers are large 
enough to make the grading close, the classes which con- 
front the teacher are often lacking in uniform ability to 
profit by the work that should be done. For example, Dr. 
Bonser found that 90 per cent of 4A pupils tested in " Rea- 
soning Ability " were superior to the poorest of the 5A pu- 
pils, and that 79 per cent of them were better than the 
poorest of the 6A pupils. The Courtis tests in arithmetic 
have shown that it is possible to find in any fourth grade, 
pupils whose ability is equal to that of the average pupil of 
the seventh grade or to that of more than a fourth of the 
eighth grade pupils, and to find in the eighth grade, pupils 



298 Education and the General Welfare 

whose ability is below the average ability in the fifth grade 
or that of a third of the pupils in the fourth grade. 

Promotion and Grading. Teaching children in groups 
misses its aim if they are not graded according to degree of 
advancement. When the grading is faulty, the work will 
go too rapidly and without sufficient detail for some, while 
for others it will be too slow and seem trivial. In one case, 
it has well been said, there will be " effort without success," 
in the other " success without effort." This is demoralizing 
for all. Inequality in a class cannot be avoided, but the 
methods of promotion may be so bad that a class may become 
disintegrated. 

Where the Trouble Begins. The children of the first 
grade are an unselected group, as they enter on the sole basis 
of age. Besides, there are usually a great number of them 
under the same teacher. A first grade of sixty or more is 
not uncommon in the cities. Under such conditions, the end 
of the year will probably show a large number of unequal 
groups. 

Appointed Times for Promotion. Under the system of 
annual promotions a child cannot go ahead of the class he is 
in until the end of the year and then he must skip a whole 
year. And a child who fails to pass at the end of the year 
must repeat the whole year. In most cities a grade is di- 
vided into two sections, half a year apart, and there are 
semi-annual promotions. In the larger cities where the 
grades are large enough to be divided into four sections and 
can be together in the same building, there may be quar- 
terly promotions, so that there cannot be a loss to a mis- 
placed pupil of more than a quarter of a year. 

Keeping the Group Consistent. Inequality in a group 



The Individual and the Group 299 

may be conceived of as due to difference in (i) rate of 
progress in the same course of study, (2) amount of work 
done, (3) power to do work, and (4) ability to do the work 
of the several branches of study. 

(i) To correct inequalities there are opportunities for 
frequent promotions, at the end of a half year, a quarter of 
a year, or promotions may be made at any time. Accord- 
ing to the Cambridge Plan ^ there are two parallel courses, 
a basal or eight-year course and the other a six-year course. 
For each year except the last of these courses there are three 
sections, so that failure in any section will mean the loss of 
only a third of a year. On the other hand promotion from 
the slower eight-year course to the six-year course, or the re- 
verse, may be made at five places in the course. According 
to the Pueblo Plan the individual need is the controlling 
principle. Each pupil goes as fast as he can, completing 
each piece of work before he takes up another. In large 
schools groups are formed and the pupils are moved from 
one group to another on the principle of rate of progress. 

(2) On the basis of the amount of work done, three 
courses are mapped out for each of the first six grades: 
one, a course of minimum essentials; another, a course 
for the average group with something added to the preced- 
ing; a third course with some additions to the preceding for 
the superior group. Promotion by subjects comes after the 
sixth grade. 

(3) Under the Batavia Plan a special effort is made to 
develop power to do the work required, to help slow pupils 
to keep even in the ranks. In classes of fifty or less half 

1 Cubberley : " Public School Administration," The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1916, pp. 300-310. 



300 Education and the General Welfare 

the teacher's time is devoted to directing study. When 
classes are larger, a second teacher assists the regular teacher 
who conducts the recitations. 

(4) In the higher grades usually, the pupils may be pro- 
moted to higher classes in those subjects in which they ex- 
cel the members of their own group. 

Group Organizations. Usually teachers are free to con- 
duct their classes according to their own ideas of manage- 
ment. Whatever the methods of promotion may be, or 
however coherent the parts of the class may be, teachers 
may organize a class for the various purposes of instruction. 
When the classes are large they may be divided into two 
groups, alternating oral and written or construction work. 
There are those who recommend that all classes be divided 
into three groups and that different amounts of work be as- 
signed for the average, the slow, and the superior. The 
psychological order of instruction as indicated in the fol- 
lowing chapter would make a division of a class or group 
into several parts a convenience. 

But the group plan of class organization often is followed 
more unreservedly. In such a case the teachers make the 
work informal, use movable chairs, and provide a table 
for each of the groups of six or eight. They stimulate in- 
dividual and group initiative, encourage competition between 
the groups, and emphasize cooperation. They allow a wide 
latitude of freedom to the whole class or any group to form 
plans for work or entertainment or to engage in a group 
or school enterprise. 

In this chapter we have considered that part of discipline 
which relates particularly to group organization and a kind 
of training for which the school has special advantages. 



The Individual and the Group 301 

Here the children learn to act together as a larger group 
for a common purpose, they learn to think together, and to 
react to group opinion. Their play, their work, their lan- 
guage, their thought, are all better because of their life in 
the group. This training is essentially such as should lead 
by the time the child passes through the sixth grade to a fair 
appreciation of the obligations of community life and the 
spirit of citizenship. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
The Work of the School Day 

All the problems of teaching come to a focus in the 
actual work of the school day. Under simplest conditions, 
the number of children who appear for the work are all of 
the same grade of advancement. It is to be supposed that 
they are able to do about the same work in all the branches. 
When they are of unequal attainments the problem is at once 
complicated. They must now be classified or graded. In 
every school where this becomes necessary there is usually 
a record of the classification of the preceding year. When 
as many as eight grades must be provided for, as may hap- 
pen in a one-teacher rural school, the problem of manage- 
ment presents itself in the most perplexing form. There 
may be as many as ten subjects to be provided for in each 
of eight grades. If there were a recitation in each subject 
for each grade there would be eighty recitations in a school 
day. If the school day is one of three hundred and sixty 
minutes there would be four and one-half minutes for a 
recitation without making allowance for recesses. But as- 
suming that there are forty-eight pupils in the school, or 
an average of six per grade, there would be a recitation time 
of three-quarters of a minute per pupil per subject, and in 
ten subjects there would be an average of seven and a half 
minutes a day of recitation time. 

Principles of Program Making. To avoid an impos- 
sible situation such as is conceived above, the program must 

302 



The Work of the School Day 303 

be organized in view of the nature and importance of the 
subjects taught. Any daily program is therefore made by 

1 taking the number of subjects to be taught 

2 in a day of 360 minutes (let us say) less the time taken out 
for recesses and general exercises 

3 dividing 2 by i 

4 distributing the time on the basis of the importance of the 
subjects for each grade, noting at the same time those that 

(a) are to be omitted for certain grades 

(b) require no preparation 

(c) can be taught to combined groups or to the school as 

a whole 

(d) can be alternated 

(e) can be combined 

Time Distribution. When we consider the amount of 
time that should be devoted to each subject we are greatly 
influenced by common practice in the matter. The follow- 
ing gives the distribution of time in minutes per week by 
subjects and grades in fifty cities : 

CHART XX 

Time Distribution by Subjects and by Grades in 
Fifty Cities ^ 



Grade 



Minutes per week devoted to- 



I II III IV V VI VII VIII 

Opening Exercises 59 59 59 54 49 48 48 48 

Reading 412 364 291 236 195 181 151 150 

Language 116 122 145 164 179 182 207 220 

Spelling 83 102 113 103 94 89 80 79 

Penmanship 77 92 80 82 77 7^ 60 57 

Arithmetic 92 148 203 230 223 226 217 220 

Geography 25 13 77 128 158 166 151 118 

1 See foot-note, next page. 



304 Education and the General Welfare 

Time Distribution by Subjects and by Grades in 
Fifty Cities ^ 

Grade 
Minutes per week devoted to 



I II III IV V VI VII VIII 

History 42 48 54 88 103 no 141 181 

Science 57 63 62 57 53 62 70 88 

Drawing 151 83 87 82 yy yy yy 76 

Music 70 130 yz y\ 70 70 70 68 

Manual training 65 yz 62 70 yy 88 iii 114 

Physical training 71 63 62 62 59 62 59 6c 

A Rural School Program. The problem of adjusting a 
daily program of a large number of subjects to the maxi- 
mum number of elementary grades is a difficult one. Stand- 
ard programs consist of two parts : one, a program of reci- 
tations; the other, a program of study periods for each class. 
A continuous program for eight successive grades or di- 
visions is not attempted. There are never more than five 
divisions. Some states authorize programs of only four 
divisions. When a program of five divisions is used, it is 
carried out by the method of alternations. In the author- 
ized program for the elementary schools of Illinois, for 
instance, there are two parts : one mapping out the work to 
be done in Even Numbered Years Work (19 18, 1920, etc.) 
and one for the Odd Numbered Year's Work (1919, 1921, 
etc.). In the following chart the recitation section of these 
two programs is given in parallel columns for convenient 
reference in explaining the methods of alternation. 

1 Compiled from Table II, study by H. W. Holmes and others, in 
"Fourteenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Edu- 
cation," Part II, page 26 (1915) ; from total annual allotment in hours, 
divided by average number of weeks of school year (38.75) > ^nd re- 
duced to minutes. 



The Work of the School Day 

CHART XXI 

A One-Teacher Rural School Recitation Program 



305 



Begin 


Time Year Even No. 


Years 


Time Year Odd No. Years 


I 


II 


III 


IV 




V 


VI 


VII 


9:00 


10 


All 


Op. Exercises 


10 


All 


Op. Exercises 




10 


I 


Primary Work 


10 


I 


Primary Work 




10 


2 


Number 




10 


2 


Number 




15 


7 


Arithmetic 




15 


8 


Arithmetic 




10 


3 


Arithmetic 




10 


3 


Arithmetic 




10 


4 


Arithmetic 




10 


4 


Arithmetic 




10 


5 


Arithmetic 




10 


6 


Arithmetic 




15 


7 


Reading 




15 


7 


Grammar 


10:00 


IS 


All 


Recess 




15 


All 






15 


I 


Primary Work 


10 


I 


Primary Work 




10 


2 


Spelling 




10 


2 


Spelling 




10 


5 


Reading 




10 


6 


Reading 




20 


8 


Grammar 




15 


8 


Reading 




10 


3 


Spelling 




10 


4 


Spelling 




10 


5 


Spelling 




10 
10 


6 
8 


SpelHng 
Spelling 


12: 00 


60 


All 


Noon 




60 


All 




1:00 


10 


All 


Gen. Exercises 


10 


All 


Gen. Exercises 




10 


7 


Spelling 




10 


I 


Primary Work 




10 


I 


Primary Work 


10 


2 


Reading 




10 


2 


Reading 




15 


All 


Writing & Draw. 




15 


All 


Writing & 


Draw. 


15' 


8 


Geography 




15 


7 


Geography 




10 


8 


Reading 




10 


3 


Reading 




10 


6 


History 




10 


5 


Geography 




10 


4 


Geography 


2:30 


15 


All 


Recess 




15 


All 






15 


1-2 


Lang. & N. 


S. 


15 


8 


History 




15 


7 


History 




15 


1-2 


Lang. & N. S. 




15 


5 


Lang. & N. 


S. 


10 


6 


Lang. & N. S. 




15 


3 


Lang. & N. 


S. 


10 


4 


Lang. & N. S. 




15 


7 


Physiol. -Civics 


10 


8 


Physiol.-Civics 












15 


6 


Geography 



1 Tabulated from published programs in " Course of Study for Com- 
mon Schools of Illinois," 1918, Taylorsville, 111., pp. 16-17. 



3o6 Education and the General Welfare 

In this program the General Exercises are devoted to 
Music or Morals and Manners or Agriculture; and the 5th 
and 6th Sewing, and 7th and 8th Cooking take the period 
after the afternoon recess the first and the third Friday of 
each month. 

Explanation of Chart. The program of study periods 
for each class is not given here. Important though it be for 
the teacher to have the whole study program carefully 
mapped out, it is not necessary to publish it here for an ex- 
planation of the essential features of the whole plan. The 
recitation program is the hinge on which everything turns. 
The study program is mapped out on the basis of the time 
not taken by the recitations. Given the time when each class 
recites, the rest of the time available is taken up in prepara- 
tion. The Illinois study program, however, has one par- 
ticularly noteworthy feature not indicated here; it follows 
the principle that preparation of the new assignment be 
made immediately after the recitation. This rule is carried 
out in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th years and to a limited extent 
in the 3rd and the 4th. 

In column I is given the time of beginning each exercise. 
As there is some difference of detail in the two columns of 
recitations only the more important points in the time 
schedule are given. Columns II and V will make the clock 
time of each exercise clear enough, as well as give the 
amount of time devoted to each recitation. In columns III 
and VI the years, or grades, reciting and in columns IV and 
VII the subjects of recitation, are given for the even and 
the odd numbered years respectively. 

Method of Alternation. It will be seen from an inspec- 



The Work of the School Day 



307 



tion of columns III and VI which years, or grades, are heard 
in recitation and which are omitted. In column III it ap- 
pears that I, 3, 5, 7 year (grade) pupils recite in all the 
subjects, 2 in reading, spelling, and number, 4 in arithmetic, 
and 8 in grammar. In the Odd Numbered Year's Work, 
classes are organized for 2, 4, 6, 8, in every subject, i in read- 
ing, spelling, and number, 3 in arithmetic, 7 in grammar. 

The Program for 19 19. Taking the program for 191 9, 
an odd numbered year, as we go down the list from the top 
of column VI we find alternations as follows : 



7th year pupils in arithmetic take the work with 8th year pupils 



5th 


<i 


ii li le 




a 




' 6th 


11 I 


5th 


" 


" " reading 




'( 




' 6th 


11 I 


3rd 


(C 


" spelHng 




11 




' 4th 


li < 


5th 


'* 


a <( n 




t( 




' 6th 


(( t 


7th 


(C 


<t a a 




a 




' 8th 


11 I 


7th 


(< 


" " geography 




(< 




' 8th 


li < 


3rd 


i( 


" reading 




<e 




' 4th 


11 { 


3rd 


ii 


" begin geography 




a 




' 4th 


a ( 


7th 


" 


*' in history 




a 




' 8th 


ii ( 


5th 


il 


" lang. & N. S. 




li 




' 6th 


It i 


3rd 


u 


a li li 




ti 




' 4th 


a I 


7th 


" 


" '' physiol-civics 




« 




' 8th 


It i 


5th 


il 


" geography 




<( 




' 6th 


ii I 



In other words — 

7th and 8th years are alternated in everything but grammar 
5th " 6th " 

3rd " 4th " " " " " " arithmetic 

1st " 2nd " " " " " " lang. & N. S. 

Program Is Suggestive. It has seemed best to give this 
program in some detail because it is an approved way of 



3o8 Education and the General Welfare 

meeting the problem at its worst and not because the condi- 
tions it represents are typical of rural schools. The one- 
teacher school is usually small and if there are pupils in each 
of the eight grades they are so few in number, in the highest 
grades at least, as to make the problem of reducing the num- 
ber of classes to be heard during each day not so difficult 
as it might appear from a study of the program presented. 
If the number of pupils of two grades, or years, combined 
should be as large as twelve to fifteen, there should be no 
alternation in such a case. It is desirable only when the 
number of pupils per grade is small. If there are eight 
grades, the lower four averaging eight pupils and the re- 
maining averaging four there would be no alternation in 
the first four grades. And such a school would have to 
be regarded as large for one unassisted teacher. With al- 
ternation in the four higher grades there would remain a 
program of six divisions instead of five as shown above. 
Usually, however, such a condition does not appear, there 
being so few as a rule in the higher grades that they can be 
taught without burdening the general program with formal 
classes. When any of the grades, or years, are not repre- 
sented it is an easy matter to modify the program and omit 
alternations. However, when classes are very small it is 
recommended that several be combined in certain subjects 
under any circumstances. 

The Formal Recitation in School Programs. How- 
ever highly we may regard the latest ingenious developments 
of program making, we should not, simply in obedience to 
tradition, ignore the manifest short-comings of any program 
whose controlling feature is the formal recitation. The pro- 
gram which has just been studied is divided into two parts. 



The Work of the School Day 309 

it is true, a schedule of recitations and a program of study- 
periods for each class. The arrangement gives an order of 
subjects for study for pupils who are not reciting. But the 
matter of importance in teaching is the time of " mental con- 
tact " between teacher and pupils. Even though pupils have 
a long time for study, they are left to themselves in it, the 
teacher is otherwise engaged all the time. 

The Teacher's Time. She hears the pupils recite in the 
program just studied from twenty-six to twenty-eight times 
a day. Ten to fifteen minutes are devoted to each recitation 
time, usually only ten. If there are twelve pupils per class 
the average time each pupil has in each recitation is usually 
much less than a minute per day per subject and for all the 
studies it would not average five minutes a day, considering 
that the teacher also takes up some of the recitation time. 
That is, the first grade, for instance, studies with no help 
from the teacher all but fifty minutes and the seventh grade 
all but ninety minutes of the school time each day, to have 
less than five minutes to say something about all the sub- 
jects they study taken together. The teacher devotes the 
whole time to recitations but hears from each of the pupils 
less on each subject than one can say in a minute. 

Original Function of the Oral Recitation. The oral 
recitation has an ancient history, dating back to the time 
when the subject-matter was wholly of such a nature as not 
to admit of investigation and inquiry. For the younger 
children the form of instruction was catechetical; older stu- 
dents heard a master of exegesis explain the sacred text. 
In both cases the exact form of the language was essential. 
Proof of retention was given by the pupil when he literally 
recited from memory. School work has since become public 



3IO Education and the General Welfare 

and secular in content and the curriculum has been widened 
to relate closely to the interests of daily life. The old 
mechanism of the daily program is out of harmony with the 
newer content and with aims that require independent think- 
ing on the part of the student. 

Recitation as Related to Subject-Matter. But we seem 
to think we must have children recite and recite in every 
subject. We make sure of this and of this alone. x\nd we 
are particular to make a just distribution of time between 
the rival subjects, often giving a larger place on the pro- 
gram for what we consider difficult and analytic subjects 
than for subjects that are more purely adapted to expression 
and expatiation. We regard arithmetic with oral reading 
and grammatical analysis with oral composition as equally 
oral recitation subjects. Which of us, who as students went 
through the mill of oral analysis of mathematical problems 
year after year through the grades and the high school, have 
now a consciousness of the practical life value of such per- 
formances? Or what do we now think of the value of the 
elaborate formulas for parsing and analysis which repeatedly 
consumed the class time through vain reiteration. 

The view that mathematical analysis has to be oral in 
order to be effective for life needs is manifestly unfounded. 
No one that we know does his everyday arithmetic that way 
and no one formally parses or analyzes a sentence to get 
its meaning. If, moreover, we use the oral recitation purely 
as a test of knowing, we waste much time with our wordy 
formulations. 

Importance of the Day's Work. It is hardly necessary 
to insist that the daily program is of utmost importance. 
The time units of which it is made up are final in determining 



The Work of the School Day 311 

the character of the larger divisions in days, weeks, months, 
and years. What is done at each period devoted to a subject 
during the day is ultimately the measure of all that is done. 
If we find, then, that all the time of the teacher is taken up 
in recitations, and recitations so short that they cannot sat- 
isfy the purpose that called them into being, it seems that the 
program is nearly destroyed in the making. And this is 
true because every other factor of school work is usually 
ignored for the sake of oral recitation. 

The Essential Factors of School Work. Given a cer- 
tain amount of time the question is what shall be done 
with it? School w^ork, as every one knows, is mental work. 
The factors that are involved in it are psychological. Every 
total psychic event consists of sensory activity, association, 
and motor response. On the neurological side they are com- 
monly represented in a diagram such as the following: 







FlGURE 8 






sensory fibers. 


b- 


-association area. 


c- 


- motor fibers. 


receptors 




adjustors 




effectors 



On the instinctive level neural activity goes by way of 
a, B, c. This route represents the immediate response to a 
stimulus among man and animals. More and more as the 
child grows older and learns from experience sensory im- 



312 Education and the General Welfare 

pressions are referred to the higher level h for control of 
the responses. Education means growth of the association 
area. Responses may be inhibited or deferred. Sensory 
impressions may become memories, or ideas, before they are 
elaborated in the association area. We can collect data and 
defer organizing them and we can organize them and defer 
giving expression of our results. 

The following correspondences with a, h, c may be noted 
in connection with the factors of school work: 



sensory impression 


association 


motor expression 


Logical terms: 






subject 


thought 


language 


Pedagogical terms: 






the assignment 


study 


recitation 


Manual activity: 






material and effect to be 






produced 


plan 


construction 


Nature study: 






collecting specimens 


classification 






analysis 


report 


observation 


organization 


report 


Geography : 






getting data 


organization 


report 
map 

diagram 
graph 


Household arts : 






properties of material 


preparing 


serving 


Arithmetic : 






conditions of problem 


analysis 


solution 


English Composition: 






material and effect to be 






produced 


organization 


composition and oral 
delivery 


evidence 


brief 


argument 



The Work of the School Day 313 

The corresponding factors in spelling are, first, finding the 
words that cause trouble and finding where the trouble lies, 
second, fixing the right associations, and third, making use 
of the words in writing. 

The lower down we go in the grades, that is, the younger 
the child the more immediately continuous the course of 
psychic activity will be. As children grow older, the power 
of inhibition increases. The power to deliberate before re- 
sponses are made is one of the results of school training. 
In our everyday life as we go from place to place or read 
the newspapers we often exercise a a great deal without 
much oi h, and as for c we have relatively little opportunity 
to talk our ideas all out. But it is not always necessary 
to call a group together whether in school or in life to pre- 
sent in language the results of thinking. All that may be 
needed to satisfy the demands of c is constructive use. This 
may be communicative or not. We may make mental use 
of the material of thought. 

However, it is not intended to minimize the importance 
of any of the three factors of school work. When any of 
them is too much ignored in the school program or too much 
emphasized all the rest will suffer. For instance, if the lan- 
guage response is emphasized at the expense in time of those 
activities of the school which are really the necessary ante- 
cedents of expression, there is no real gain to the child and 
perhaps it would be better for practical life to be somewhat 
exercised in thought without expression rather than expres- 
sion without thought. 

a 

Too Many Impressions. In considering each of the fac- 
tors separately, it will appear that the school must aim at a 



314 Education mid the General Welfare 

fair balance among them. It is possible to have too little or 
too much of any of them. There may be too much of a. 
This will lead to confusion of thought and will check the 
powers of organization. It is worse than futile to assign 
a lesson too long for thorough organization. Students 
sometimes, under the department plan, may be required to 
look up too many references not by any one of the teachers 
but by all of them together, each one apparently thinking 
that no other teacher requires any. We have the same ef- 
fect in the grades when the tempo of the class work is too 
fast. Getting too many impressions, seeing too many pic- 
tures, visiting too many galleries, is not only dazzling and 
confusing but also fatiguing even though the experience it- 
self is pleasurable. Under these conditions c as well as h 
will fail. 

Too Few Impressions. There may be too little of a. 
A man of little observation and limited reading will prob- 
ably over-elaborate the few ideas he has got. He will make 
more of the facts than belongs to them. Inferences will be 
far-fetched and thought and language will be shallow. In 
school when pupils are hard pressed for lack of matter they 
will speak in very general terms. They have no thought to 
express because they have had nothing to think about. In 
school there may be too few books to read and too little con- 
crete material. The assimilating powers of young children 
are unusually strong and there is little danger of confronting 
them with too much material so long as it is on the level of 
their appreciation. It is through a that the field of the 
school's activities should be extended. The material for 
use in study should be brought from the home, the farm, the 
field, and the woods. If the school is not favorably located 



The Work of the School Day 315 

for such extensions, animal life may be brought into the 
schoolroom in an aquarium or terrareum. In the lower 
grades each child should care for a single plant in its cycle 
of life from seed to seed and later should join the school 
garden movement. Besides, the school should have as a 
part of its equipment a phonograph and a moving picture 
projector. 



Over-Elaboration. There may be too much, relatively, 
or too little oih. Unwarranted inferences or unsound judg- 
ments, and the too active pursuit of a single idea, are the 
result of too much elaboration of limited data. " Jumping 
at conclusions " without taking into consideration enough 
of the facts that are available is one of the common faults 
of thinking in school as well as life. The same theory may 
serve to explain too many problems. It is a fault of little 
knowledge and much experience in teaching to fit a common 
method to every type of practice. It is the case of the 
child's delightful fancies which are the achievement of an 
active mind with a limited amount of constructive material ; 
a lack of balance in the early years between mental vigor and 
experience in the world. It is the case of Hamlet who 
thinks but does not act and who although he has flashes of 
brilliancy achieves but a broken and fitful frame for the 
thought that is in him. It is the case of the hermit in his 
cell and the philosopher in his attic. 

Want of Elaboration. The opposite is so common and 
well known among teachers that it needs no discussion. We 
know how little children learn of organization of material 
and how little opportunity the school program usually gives 



3i6 Education and the General Welfare 

them for the exercise of this power. It is not because it is 
difficult per se, for on their own level of experience kinder- 
garten children are capable of it; it is rather because of little 
practice in this normal mental function that it is avoided 
for the more familiar and easier route of mechanical mem- 
ory. Then the language of some one else is substituted for 
one's own thought and language. 



Empty Language. When we consider to what extent 
preliminary factors may be neglected or overemphasized we 
need not wonder at disappointing results in expression. In 
the public school program too little is made as a rule of a 
and h. The verbal showing made at the fixed intervals of 
a program of formal recitations reveals the short-comings 
that precede. There may be an unwarranted fullness of ex- 
pression; the exercise of an active external mechanism of 
language to compensate for emptiness within. Thus a pro- 
gram of oral recitations gives practice in talk when one has 
really nothing to say. One may hold that habituation in the 
use of correct language forms is in itself valuable at least 
in the lower grades or in the case of children of foreign par- 
entage, but one may finally question the educational value of 
language that is not informed by one's own thought. 

Cross-Purposes in the Recitation. But usually when 
the time of the teacher is devoted to hearing recitations, the 
issue is not so fortunate. The pupil's efforts at expression 
are halting and utterance is fragmentary. Then the teacher 
comes to the rescue with promptings and suggestive ques- 
tioning. In the end little is done to justify the time spent 
in school or the cost of maintaining it. 



The Work of the School Day 317 

We are, In fact at that period of transition in the history 
of the recitation when it serves a double function. Influ- 
enced by the modern aim of school work it consists of ques- 
tions and answers which are in the nature of oral tests of the 
effect of study. On the other hand we expect fluency of 
language and continuity of thought. This can be had under 
the ordinary conditions only as a summary of the frag- 
mentary work done in class of which several individuals are 
the sources of the fragments. These functions should be 
wholly separated. The recitation proper should be a con- 
tinuous whole of language and thought. In a well-organ- 
ized program special provision will be made for this kind of 
exercise. Probings, questioning, and oral tests bring results 
which are also of the character of c, but they are relatively 
incomplete results incidental to h as revealing weaknesses of 
organization for immediate correction and in preparation of 
the continuous recitation proper in topical form. 

Modern Program Requirements. Since re-citing is no 
longer the sole function of school because of the nature of 
the studies in the modern curriculum, it is necessary to con- 
sider ways and means of giving such recognition to the 
other essential factors of school work as will give the pupil 
a sense of their importance. The relation of the teacher to 
the program of all the work that is done should be to impress 
upon the pupil that there are at most three things to do for 
effective learning in any subject. There is a psychology of 
each: of observation, thinking, and expression. While in 
the first three grades where the proportion of oral work is 
large it may not serve a good purpose in practice to draw 
the line between them too closely, beginning with the fourth 
grade, these processes provide a psychological basis for a 



3i8 Education and the General Welfare 

distribution of work between groups of any size of the same 
grade or of different grades combined pursuing the same 
study. Directions are given simultaneously to a group 
whether it be an assignment or what to do with the assign- 
ment. While this is taking place another group is studying 
an assignment previously made and afterward a possible 
third group is tested on the results of their work. Probing 
for results may be made orally or in writing but always with 
the view of getting at the status of the individual. Prelim- 
inary to this in any group there may be an exercise in de- 
velopment. Before the new assignment is made to any 
group there may be a summary of what preceded the day be- 
fore. It will not take long in any case to find out how the 
work is going. The teacher is at hand to help out with 
difficulties or she may think it best for the student to strive 
alone. The exercise may be varied by competition between 
groups, or one group may be engaged in testing another with 
open book before them on memoriter work. The teacher's 
time is devoted alternately to the different groups. How 
much time will be required for the factors of preparation 
cannot always be determined in advance. For the gathering 
of data, for making observations, etc., and for thinking out 
a problem we cannot properly fix time limits. For routine 
drill in fixing associations or for any kind of routine repeti- 
tion or the exercise of the mechanical memory, we can make 
a fair estimate of how long it will take to cover an assign- 
ment. We can say to a child you may repeat orally or write 
out certain multiplication tables or you may play games for 
the next half hour. That period of time can be filled up 
even. But in original work, that is, work done for the first 
time and not in the nature of repetition, the processes will 



The Work of the School Day 319 

not come out even with a fixed period of time. If any 
pupil gets through before the time Hmit has expired he earns 
a leisure to do something else in 'the courses that especially 
interest him or he may prefer to advance more rapidly and 
in time join a higher group. If he does not succeed as a 
rule in getting through with the others, it may be better for 
him to drop down to the next group below. Promotion, or 
the contrary, becomes feasible particularly if all the groups 
work in the same subject at the same period. This gives 
opportunity to exhibit relations of the parts to the whole 
and avoids the necessity of a frequent change of mental 
" set." Instead of having ten or fifteen minutes for each of 
several unrelated subjects in succession, related matter is 
arranged and, if possible, thrown together-. Variation to 
prevent fatigue and monotony can be had within the limits 
of the longer periods by a change of the character of the 
exercise whenever the need for it is felt. 

Organizing a Program. Instead of having a daily pro- 
gram of isolated and consequently formal exercises, the sub- 
jects may to a large extent be organized as means and ends. 
In their nature they may be characterized as one or the 
other. For instance, an oral presentation or a written com- 
position is an end for which reading or observation and 
thinking are means. Reading for content is a means of 
gathering material for thought on a subject such as history 
or geography. If in school we read for thought we might as 
well read for the kind of thought we have use for in one 
of the content studies. We need not limit ourselves to this 
kind of reading, however. We can also read literary se- 
lections but also with a motive ; for we will allow consider- 
able time for general exercises where we will satisfy the 



320 Education and the General Welfare 

desire for public performances for which the whole school 
forms the audience. Here a second or third grade will show 
how well they can read or recite poetry or tell a story. This 
is the place for the recitation. It is prepared for during 
the regular periods. It differs from the work of those pe- 
riods as it is a prepared-for and uninterrupted performance. 
Other grades can prepare a dramatic piece to present or 
compositions to read or deliver. 

There may be pedagogical organization within the limits 
of a period. We put Numbers and Hand Work or Con- 
structive Work in the same period, for the little folks can 
thus apply their numbers. We put Spelling in so far as it 
relates to the observation and study of words in the same 
period with Reading. It appears again in connection with 
use in Written Composition. The periods are related to 
each other when, for instance, Reading contributes to our 
thought on the geography or history lesson for to-day or to- 
morrow. And all the periods, some more than others, may 
be directly or indirectly related to what is done at the gen- 
eral exercises. 

The question and answer form of recitation will be a part 
of every lesson; that of connected thought and language is 
reserved for general exercises. As it is an exercise in lan- 
guage, in communication or expression, it requires a real 
audience and the motive of an occasion. Without a motive 
any exercise of language whether in school or life becomes 
artificial. The recurrence of the recitation at stated in- 
tervals when there is no occasion to prepare for, reduces 
it to a routine performance even though it is related to 
content rather than form studies. As a form of exercise 
it is best suited to memoriter or motor drill. To hear only 



The Work of the School Day 



321 



such exercises requires no great skill. The resourceful 
teacher wastes time in a daily program limited to such per- 
formance. 

The following program " successfully used by a teacher of two 
grades " ^ is a form of flexible program. Each grade is divided 
into two groups A and B. The groups vary from six to twelve 
pupils each. 



9:00- 9:15 
9:15-10:30 



Arithmetic 
(55"iin.) 



[0:10-10:50 



Geography 
(4omin.) 



CHART XXII 
Opening Exercises. 

5 min. Assign problems to 6A at seats ; assign prob- 
lems to 6B at blackboard. 
35 min. Develop topic with 5A. 
15 min. 5B recite on topic developed yesterday and 
studies during preceding 40 min. 

(Following day 6A has new topic in 35 min. 
5A recites 15 min., 5B works at blackboard, 
6B at seats.) 
(On the next day, 6B has new topic, 6A recita- 
tion, 5A at board, 5B at seats, etc., as closely 
as the nature of the work permits.) 
(In this room it is convenient to use the fifth 
day in each week for combining groups in re- 
view and drill work.) 

10 min. Review 5th grade on essentials of yester- 
day's lesson and outline advanced assignment; 6th 
grade preparing. 

30 min. Recitation or development in 6th grade; 
5th grade studying 

(Reverse on the following day.) 



1 Bennett : " School Efficiency," New York, 1917, pp. 177-178, Ginn and 
Company. 



2^22 Education and the General Welfare 

10:50-11:10 Both grades together, alternating with drawing, 
arithmetic drill, or supervised study period. 
Singing 
(20 min.) 
11:10-11:50 Reverse geography schedule for the day. 
History 
(40 min.) 
II :50-i2:oo 
(10 min.) Spelling and penmanship drills for those below 

standard. 
I :oo-i :40 

Period divided about equally between the two grades, 

not divided into permanent sections. Time 

Reading varies with selection but is balanced from day to 

(40 min.) day. Once a week all combine in some selection of 

interest to all. 
1 :40-2 :35 

Division of period and rotation as in arithmetic. 
Language Composition usually instead of blackboard work. 

(55 min.) 
2 :35-3 :oo 

Hygiene, 5th grade Mon. & Wed. ; 6th grade study. 
Physiology, 6th grade, Tues. & Thurs. ; 5th grade 
study. Current events, all, Friday. 

A Suggested Departure from the Recitation Program. 

An eight-grade program with many pupils to provide for 
in a one-teacher school presents a discouraging situation 
under any scheme of management. However, even here one 
departure might be made from the daily succession of oral 
rehearsals. The formal recitations might be omitted at 
times to give the time to showing the children how to pre- 
pare for them. Then recitations would be had only when 
preparation had been made and pupils had something to say. 
Especially at the beginning of a term, there might be no reci- 



I 



The Work of the School Day 323 

tations at all for a few days or a week. After a time the 
pupils would learn what it means to prepare and as they gain 
the power of self-direction more and more, there would be 
increasing time for recitations. 

Organization Within the Time Periods. In the work 
of the primary grades this kind of organization would bring 
scattered periods for Copying, Reading, Blackboard Work, 
Written Work, Language, Nature Study, Numbers, etc., to- 
gether under two heads : Reading and Language, and Num- 
bers. Drawing may be related to the Reading work, or Lan- 
guage, or Nature Study. Nature Study is often either 
book work or preliminary to report in language. Hand 
Work is combined with Numbers because it will serve for 
the application of number. When thus organized, studies 
do not remain isolated memories easily forgotten, but they 
become a part of the warp and woof of knowledge actually 
established by constructive use. 

Following is a second grade program in present use in 
arithmetic, reading and language, nature study, drawing and 
writing. A period of 30 minutes is devoted to General Ex- 
ercises, There are two sections. The periods are long, but 
as they are varied in character of the exercises, they are not 
more tedious than if a certain number of fixed minutes were 
set down for each exercise. Without fixed limitations the 
exercises will yield to organisation. The time division is as 
follows : 

CHART XXIII 

8:30-9:30 General Exercises 

A child tells a story 
Several poems are recited 
Song by all 



324 Education and the General Welfare 

9 :oo-io :oo Arithmetic 

Review drill with number games 

Application — Hand Work 

Development of new work 

Written exercise 
10:00-10:15 Recess 
10:15-11:25 Reading and Language 

Oral exercises 

Silent reading 

Spelling and dictation 

Seat work 

1 :oo-2 :oo Nature study 

Observation 
Drawing 
Writing 
2:00-2:15 Recess 

2 :i5-3 :i5 Reading and Language 

Oral expression 
Seat work 
Written work 

Note. — Five minutes of physical exercise gives further variation 
in every hour of the program. 

Organization Between the Periods. This is best il- 
lustrated in the higher grades. For instance, silent reading 
has a large place here. Hence the teacher may organize the 
work so that the reading period will not be aimless but con- 
tribute something to the work in history, geography, or per- 
haps physiology. The History period itself will be largely 
reserved for the use of material gathered in Reading and for 
the study of the meaning of events, past and current. The 
Geography period will be largely for study and construction 
work in map-making from observation, map-reading, etc. 
While Spelling is organized within the period on the one 



The Work of the School Day 325 

side with Reading and on the other with Composition, Com- 
position itself will also be an end for which the work in 
Reading, Geograph}^ History, etc., are the means. Literary 
reading and dramatics will not be neglected. Writing is a 
means to Composition, and Drawing may be used to illus- 
trate Composition. Nature Study in the higher divisions 
is organized with Geography and both are the end for which 
field excursions are the means. In a program for the 4th 
and 5th grade with Reading, Arithmetic, Language and 
Composition, Geography (Nature Study), History, Spelling, 
Drawing, Writing, Music, and Physical Training to provide 
for, the two grades being in the same room and under only 
one teacher, the distribution of the time between the grades 
would be as indicated before, in connection with the other 
programs, on the basis of the different factors of mental 
work. 

CHART XXIV 

Program for Fourth and Fifth Grades 

A 8:45- 9-^5 General Exercises 
Music 
Program an outgrowth of the work of preceding 

days: 
Readings, recitations, dramatic work, etc., etc. 
(C) (E) 
B 9:15-10:15 Arithmetic 

Application to home problems, geography, gar- 
dening, nature study, etc. 
10:15-10:30 Recess 
C 10:30-11:30 Reading 

Study of words — Spelling 

Literary reading and dramatization (A) or 



F 


2:15-2:30 


G 


2:30-3:30 


H 


3:30-4:00 



326 Education and the General Welfare 

Geographical and science reading or Nature 

study and hygiene (G) or 
History and biography (stories) (H) 
D 11:30-12:00 Writing and Drawing 
E 1:15-2:15 Language and Composition 

Written use of words — Spelling 
Written composition 

Sources of material — (C) and life 
Preparation for (A) or (H) 
Physical Training 

Geography (Nature Study) or History (i day) 
Home geography and map-making and map- 
reading 
General Exercises 

Same as (A) but especially story telling of 
animal life, biography, and history (including 
current history) 

Note. — On days when it is desired to make an excursion for 
observational nature study, G and C may exchange places and D 
may be omitted. Correlation between the Periods is indicated by 
letters in parenthesis. 

Directed Study. Thus the time not employed in the reci- 
tation is organized for directed study, and study, moreover, 
with an immediate purpose to use the results. This is a 
practical way of meeting the needs of an organized study 
program when the teaching force is too small to carry out 
more comprehensive supervised study plans. ^ 

Departmental Programs. When a school curriculum is 
divided into departments with a teacher in charge of the 
work in each, dividing classes into grotips becomes partic- 

^ For various ways of organizing time for study in Intermediate and 
High Schools see Hall-Quest: "Supervised Study," The Macmillan 
Company, New York, 1916, pp. 94-160 and Appendix pp. 399-408. 



The Work of the School Day 327 

ularly feasible, and the time the pupils remain with the 
same teacher can readily be distributed as the needs of the 
day may require. In the public school system of Gary, In- 
diana, the regular studies are divided into two departments ; 
arithmetic, history, and geography being grouped in one, 
and reading, writing, spelling, and composition in the other. 
'' Half the day is given to the regular studies, and half the 
day to special activities. The regular studies occupy two 
periods of 90 minutes each, one in the forenoon and one 
in the afternoon. Each regular teacher has but one class at 
a time, and the way in which the time is divided, whether in 
recitation, study, individual help, or otherwise, depends upon 
the needs of those in the class." ^ 

1 Burris : " The Public School System of Gary," Bulletin 1914, No. 
18, U. S. Bureau of Education, p. 14. 



CHAPTER XIX 
The Play Instinct in School Work 

All forms of activity whether in school or life may be 
comprehended under the terms of work and play. An at- 
tempt will be made in this chapter to point out the more im- 
portant marks of distinction between them because of their 
relation to an intelligent management of the activities of 
school life. To know something of the difference between 
work and play is essential to the motivation of school work. 

Play and the Development of the Self. First Stage. 
The development of the forms of activity parallels the stages 
in the development of the self. The initial powers by means 
of which the child's self merges into being are willing and 
feeling by means of the nervous structures transmitted by 
heredity. The first field in which they operate to develop 
themselves is the physical body of the child. In this stage 
the child's muscles learn to respond to impulses from within, 
an early antecedent to the development of voluntary control 
of the resources of the body. 

Second and Third Stage. In the second stage of de- 
velopment the operations of the growing self are extended 
to things beyond the body by means of the control now par- 
tially established. There are things to be reached for, to 
go to, to remove from one place to another. A further ex- 
tension is made through the use of tools; for instance, a 

328 



The Play Instinct in School Work 329 

stick or some other object is used to effect a change in the 
surroundings. And then there are things that resist and 
their resistance has to be overcome, affording further 
growth of voluntary power and also marking out the bounds 
more definitely between the self and the not-self. 

At first things and persons in the world around are reacted 
to indiscriminately as things; then persons and things are 
reacted to as persons ; finally persons and things are dis- 
tinguished. Thus through the child's play activities the self 
develops; becomes limited, rounded out, and unified. This 
is nature's own way, and there is no other way, for the 
child to develop the self. In summary, the first essential in 
the development of the self is the hereditary nervous struc- 
ture with which the child manifests its hereditary will and 
feelings. This is the means of gaining acquaintance with 
the resources of the body. The body is in turn the means 
of becoming acquainted with things and other selves. 

The child's play activities run parallel to these stages in 
the development of the self. There is first a kind of play 
which is due to pleasure in activity for its own sake. Sec- 
ond, there is a kind of play in which the interest lies in how 
things behave. Third, there is a kind of play in which the 
interest is in persons, who are made to act in one's own per- 
son because, unlike things, they are not under our immediate 
control. 

General Agreements and Differences Between Work 
and Play. Before distinguishing types of activity, it is well 
to bear in mind that any form of human activity is a mental 
as well as a physical event. One that seems to be pre- 
dominantly physical in its manifestations still has a mental 
component, as one that is regarded as mental has also a 



330 Education and the General Welfare 

physical component. We are concerned here with the men- 
tal component of all the forms of activity. All activities 
run a course. They are accompanied by different mental 
states at different moments of their course. Work and play 
begin differently, they end differently. They are initiated 
with different degrees of psychic impulsions and carried on 
in different degrees of suspense. There may, to all outward 
appearances, be no difference in intensity of application or 
in foot-pound results, but they represent different kinds and 
degrees of satisfaction or dissatisfaction during or at the 
close of the course of the activity. They differ in the degree 
they enlist curiosity in the outcome, in the plot interest they 
arouse. The fundamental basis of distinction between the 
types that follow will be the degree in which they engage 
the total self and the point in the course of the activity upon 
which the consciousness is chiefly focused. 

TYPES OF ACTIVITY PLAY 

I 

We shall regard the first kind of activity mentioned above 
in tracing the development of the self as type one. It has 
been described as an impulsive movement or a mechanical 
response to a stimulus from within. It is here that we come 
upon the Spencerian principle of excess energy, which is re- 
leased through outward movement. Bodily movements of 
this kind in time become pleasurable and are then made for 
their own sake. 

Besides the spontaneous movements of children in kicking 
their feet, curling the toes, stretching and bending the limbs 
and trunk, the gambols of animals illustrate this form of 
play. But pleasure in movement for its own sake is a part 



The Play Instinct in School Work 331 

not alone of play but also of work. The general feeling of 
well-being prompts activity in either. But the point to be 
emphasized here is that there is a type of play in which this 
is the chief pleasure. Other forms of this activity are prim- 
itive emotional dancing and the natural dances of childhood. 
Under this head come also gymnastic exercises. If the at- 
tainment of superior skill becomes the dominant motive we 
have the amateur acrobat, gymnast, swimmer, etc. 

When this activity is play there is perfect freedom of 
initiative. One can begin or stop the activity whenever one 
pleases. The interest is in the activity for its own sake. 
There is no accumulation of interest in any part of its 
course ; that is, it is void of plot-interest. 

When it becomes work, freedom of initiative is limited. 
When exercises are undertaken at regular intervals under 
direction for the purpose of strengthening some muscle or 
improving the general health, they pass beyond the realm of 
play. When freedom of initiative and continuance is lim- 
ited by the professional contract made by a skilled performer, 
for instance, this type of activity becomes work. To make 
it work, however, does not take away the pleasure in 
doing it. 

In school a teacher can safely count on pleasure in ac- 
tivity for its own sake, whether mental or physical, as a fun- 
damental impulse. This is true whether it be directed work 
or free play. 

Plot-Interest in Play. But interest in activity is much 
increased if, instead of being evenly distributed, it is cumu- 
lative; if the interest is directed chiefly to the outcome. In 
other words, plot interest is the controlling motive of play 
as distinguished from work. This is the chief interest in 



332 Education and the General Welfare 

all the types of play that are to follow ; interest in the activity 
for its own sake is either subordinate or lacking. 

II 

Very soon in the life of the child in connection with the 
development of the sense of self, plot interest develops. The 
first form which it seems to take is interest in what the self 
can achieve. Without freedom of initiative this interest in 
the self would not be possible. For instance, a child takes 
pleasure at first in learning to walk. So long as there is 
some uncertainty of the outcome, the achievement brings 
satisfaction to the ego. When the movement has been 
learned and becomes automatic, interest is lost in it. It may 
be recovered by self-imposed handicaps. All along the in- 
terest is ego-centric — '' See whether I can do it." The child 
will try in succession, perhaps, to keep its equilibrium while 
walking on a narrow board, on the top rail of a fence, on 
a branch of a tree, on a taut rope. It will try other modes 
of locomotion such as hopping on one foot, jumping rope, 
etc. With *' I can do it " comes much satisfaction to the 
ego. There is a feeling of equality with those who are im- 
itated and of superiority over the younger children. In the 
meantime these apparently useless activities have increased 
the sense of balance and improved walking and allied move- 
ments. 

Too seldom in school do we connect the growing sense of 
self and the pride of power with ability to do school work 
of a difficult character. It would be well to challenge the 
ego by saying, '' I'll give you something hard ; I wonder 
whether you can do it; I believe you can." Freedom of 
initiative is taken away when teachers insist always on sim- 



The Play Instinct in School Work 333 

plifying the approaches to difficult problems. One of the 
most important elements of training is the power of attack. 
This is developed only by a skillful appeal to the child's 
total self. 

Ill 

The third type of activity does not consist in exploring the 
resources of physical powers but in producing a change in 
the world of things around. Again freedom of initiative 
and plot-interest are the characteristics of the play side of 
the activity. But now the interest is, at least at first, in how 
things behave; what will happen to them if you interfere. 
An early form of this activity consists in testing the sense 
qualities of objects: a spoon is dropped from the table, for 
instance, to hear the sound it makes, a ball is rolled and 
bounced, blocks are set up, thrown down, and set up again. 
Again the interest is not in the activity but in the outcome. 
The interest is in results, in what happens. 

Plot-Interest in a Ball. As the child grows older the 
ball as a plaything affords increasing possibilities. Being 
round and rolling it seems like a thing alive. There are 
more possibilities of chance in a ball than in any other 
form of plaything. What will happen with it is an inter- 
esting uncertainty to the child. There is an infinite number 
of directions it may take. It is a willful and wayward 
thing. The difficulties and uncertainties are enhanced in 
adding the use of the bat, as rounded surface meets rounded 
surface. In other words, the ball, and the ball and bat, are 
replete with plot-interest. 

In the individual child's play with objects the course of 
the activity is short. There is little waiting for the result 



334 Education and the General Welfare 

and the patience is not strained. Under certain condi- 
tions, when the course of the activity is prolonged, there is 
a heightening of the interest in the outcome. But plot-in- 
terest may be present in short as well as long games. Under 
this type come such childhood games as tag, drop-the-hand- 
kerchief, blind man's buff, etc. The difference between 
games for small children and for larger ones is always in the 
length of what may be called plot-development. 

Heightened Plot-Interest. The competitive game 
brings in a new factor which greatly heightens plot-interest. 
Another personality now confronts us, not things which are 
pliable, adaptable, and passive. This kind of activity en- 
lists the full powers of the normal individual more than any- 
thing else in the world. Again the interest is not in the 
activity for its own sake ; it is in who beats. The more un- 
certain the outcome seems to be in the course of a game, 
the stronger is the plot-interest ; first for the players and then 
also for the spectators. If the interest were in the activity 
for its own sake, the movements would be made self-con- 
sciously and would be mentally disturbing and a hindrance 
to success. Play cannot become a pleasure at all until one 
can forget everything else and focus attention on what is to 
be accomplished. To be sure, one does not think of the 
last result directly in the course of a game but on all the 
critical moments and minor climaxes as they come. Every 
ball that is thrown or batted is watched to see whether it 
arrives or where it goes. The interest is always in the out- 
come with its possible satisfactions or disappointments. If 
this can be surely predicted, interest is lost for the man who 
is sure to win, the man who is sure to lose, and for the 
spectators. 



The Play Instinct in School Work 335 

Feeling of Responsibility. In a competitive game the 
interest in the outcome is so intense because personal re- 
sponsibility for losing or winning is always clearly fixed. 
This is closely related to the state of the total self. The 
player is always conscious of this responsibility. It gives 
the loser an uncomfortable feeling. He makes all sorts of 
excuses to himself. He looks intently at the bat after 
'^ three strikes and out " or perhaps throws it aside angrily, 
as if to shift the disagreeable feeling of responsibility. 
After a misstroke at tennis he looks at the racket to find an 
excuse for his fault. He explains defeat by loss of sleep, 
stiff joints, or indigestion, trying to shift the blame from the 
total self. If he succeeds there is just a general feeling of 
well-being without specifications. 

The Quitter. While theoretically a player is free at any 
time to quit or continue playing, personal honor limits this 
freedom and compels him to play a losing game through. If 
he does not, he is reproached with the universally oppro- 
brious name of quitter. To play a losing game is to make 
the activity a burden. Strictly the quitter is one who, al- 
though he plays on, has lost all interest in the game because 
of the way it is going. He is prematurely discouraged. 
This spoils interest in the outcome. It can too easily be 
predicted. 

Summary of the Characteristics of Play. 

I. Freedom of initiative. This is possible in school ac- 
tivities only to a limited extent. However, it should be the 
teacher's aim to encourage it in every possible way. There 
may also be group initiative when children are allowed to 
plan general school exercises. When a program is flexible 
and individual children have the opportunity to earn a period 



2^^6 Education and the General Welfare 

of leisure, occasions arise for the exercise of initiative. 
Even in the regular work of the school there are children 
who show leadership and a power of self-direction in ad- 
vanced work that is not definitely required. 

2. The consequence of individual or group initiative is 
that the responsibility for losing and credit for winning are 
clearly indicated. Winning begets confidence and the con- 
sciousness of power. Losing has the contrary effect. 
When children work in groups in which they always lose in 
a contest, they become discouraged and demoralized. The 
groupings should be so made as to prevent as far as possible 
the habit of failure. 

3. Play absorbs the attention ; that is, it engages the whole 
self. A divided interest or attention is fatal to success. In 
the strenuous games out of doors a divided attention is 
" losing one's head," *' going to pieces." It is caused by a 
momentary attention to the activity itself or the movements 
made or brooding on failure to score, or on the errors made. 
The exercise of playing games makes for mental health, in 
that it gives practice in concentrating attention on the main 
issue. To do otherwise brings its swift punishment. 

4. Variety of experience is assured in a game which leaves 
considerable latitude for the play of the accidental. The 
teacher should study how to promote a reasonable amount 
of variety in the regular school exercises. This tends to in- 
troduce into the work an element of play. When children 
can always predict the course of an exercise, it will soon be- 
come monotonous. This is deadening and should be 
avoided. 

5. Plot-interest. This is the central play interest. It ab- 
sorbs attention and is heightened by freedom of initiative 



The Play Instinct in School Work 337 

and a variety of incidents. To begin with results some one 
else has discovered is fatal to good work in school, espe- 
cially in the field of natural science. The pleasure of dis- 
covery is one of the vital rewards of school work. 

6. Satisfactions at the end of a course of activity are the 
primal rewards to those who reach the goal. They are to 
be described as a general feeling that all is well, a sense 
of fitness, a feeling of capability and efficiency — a total 
self-feeling which can better be felt than described. The 
feeling of confidence gained is an integrating force favor- 
able to concentration and future success. 

These are several of the ways by means of which school 
work may be vitalized by appealing to the energy of the 
child's total self. This is how " to put one's self into one's 
work " as the popular phrase has it. 

On the other hand, to make the school activities purely 
work and nothing else (a procedure which a few writers 
seem to prefer), to impose the exercises upon the pupil and 
leave him no initiative whatever; to let him remain silent 
until he is spoken to; to take all plot-interest out of the ex- 
ercises, removing all doubt in the beginning a*s to how it is 
expected to come out; to make all exercises as uniform as 
possible so that children may be able to predict what is going 
to happen every moment in advance; call on the children in 
order; exhibit results at once and have the children learn 
what they are. These are some of the ways to make 
school children acquainted with the work side of their ex- 
ercises. 

Play as Mental Hygiene. In the development of the 
self it is the need of activity that impels a child to play. 
It is also the need of unified action that causes a child to 



^2f^ Education and the General Welfare 

concentrate his attention upon the issues of the game. Play 
is practice not so much to prepare the muscles for future 
work but to integrate the action of the nervous forces. In 
the types of activity thus far discussed, the child learns to 
command his resources, to make the body serve the dictates 
of the will, to concentrate his energies at any particular point 
and in quick response to the needs of the moment. Thus is 
promoted a habit of concentration instead of a divided at- 
tention. 

IV 

When through a certain amount of experience in self-di- 
rected action the child finally rounds out a sense of a unified 
self, he further extends his field of experience by transfer- 
ring his personality to other persons. This is the fourth 
type of activity to be distinguished. It is called dramatic 
imitation. As said before, the child plays because of the 
need of activity for normal mental as well as bodily growth. 
Thus he also becomes acquainted with things in the sur- 
roundings. But things are amenable to immediate control, 
persons are not. For this reason the child assumes the char- 
acter of other persons in order to use them in play. 

The Play Illusion. The child puts himself under illu- 
sions, for illusion increases the educational possibilities of 
the objects of play. For instance, a little girl plays that her 
doll is sick and that she, its mother, is greatly worried ; the 
boy learns the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk and then 
puts himself under the illusion that he is Jack. The child 
is at once dramatist, actor, and spectator. The illusion 
created may be of several degrees of depth. In one, the con- 



The Play Instinct in School Work 339 

sciousness that the child creating the illusion and the other 
person are actually different is always present; in the sec- 
ond, the consciousness of this difference seems momentarily 
lost and there are actual tears, which have been seen in the 
nursery as well as on the stage. 

In this kind of play, dumb, lifeless things may be imitated 
as well as persons and animals. The former usually serve 
for comic effects. But in all cases objects of importance to 
the child's view are used for dramatic imitation in order to 
heighten plot-interest in the play of adventure; for what 
happens to the child in his own person is of little conse- 
quence, but what happens to Napoleon, for instance, who is 
present in person, is an exciting adventure. 

This type of play activity used in school in connection 
with history, composition, and reading has the most pow- 
erful educative effect. It is easy to introduce, for the re- 
sourceful imagination of the children will readily supply all 
deficiencies of costume and stage properties. 

A related motive is imitation of the social, industrial, and 
political environment. Children in the adolescent period, 
particularly, will be interested in doing what their elders do. 
Thus the Red Cross and Thrift Stamp campaigns were not 
only used as motives for school work but were carried on in 
school in exactly the same way as outside. 

Again, older students sometimes engage in school work 
with greater earnestness when it is related to permanent life 
interests. It is the imitative impulse that accounts for the 
passion to apply the tools of knowledge to the problems of 
practical household and business management. 



340 Education and the General Welfare 

V 

Constructive Activity — Play and Work. The fifth 
type is practice in realizing an idea through material means, 
(a) It is the type used first by the child when in the block- 
building and paper-cutting stage of its development. The 
result of the activity is variable. One must try and see. 
The chief interest here too is in how it will come out; that 
is : there is plot-interest in constructive work of every kind 
so long as it is not repeated according to specifications; so 
long as there is no uniform standardized product. In build- 
ing an article of furniture or a house, painting a picture, 
carving a statue, there is freedom of initiative, variety of 
incidents, possibility of success or failure, responsibihty, 
suspense, and satisfaction with the completed product, (b) 
When the end is necessarily foreseen, when the work is so 
certain to come out in a specified way that it can be con- 
tracted for and delivered in accordance with specifications, 
this form of activity becomes work, although it does not lose 
all the characteristics of the play activity. The constructive 
worker may still put plot-interest into his work if he has 
rising or at least changing ideals. He may destroy all exe- 
cuted designs and plans. But if he repeats the product with 
a machine and like a machine with unvarying regularity, 
the play element will be lacking. When the work becomes 
automatic, the self will be entirely disengaged and taken up 
with some other object or idea. 

Constructive activity in school should function as play 
and recreation. Manual training should be carried on for 
recreative purposes like athletics. It should go as far along 
a certain line of work as is necessary to prove to oneself 



The Play Instinct in School Work 341 

that he can realize the idea or design. Repetition for au- 
tomatic mastery is not necessary for general training and 
is not educative. 

VI 

Work. In this type of activity the interest lies in the 
constant product and the constant material reward. This is 
to be sharply distinguished from all other types. This is 
v^ork, and v^ork only. In this case the product is made ac- 
cording to specifications and indefinitely multiplied. The 
process of production is repeated until the unforeseen no 
longer happens. Every movement becomes habitual, all the 
parts are standardized, the product is unvariable. Here 
there is no uncertainty of the outcome, no plot-interest. If 
I am not convinced that the v^orker will produce results ac- 
cording to expectations I will not hire him. The contract 
limits freedom of initiative or change. 

In all other types of activity there were opportunities to 
exercise free ideas. Here the worker is capable of free 
ideas only in connection with the material reward of his 
labors. With this he may do what he pleases. This is his 
motive but it is not a necessary characteristic or circum- 
stance of work. There may be work without this result. 
The work of the school is without a material reward, as a 
rule. In fact such a motive for school work is universally 
condemned as the lowest possible; especially is this true of 
the elementary and the secondary school. Here we see that 
we cannot hold to the well known distinction that in play 
interest is in the activity, while in work it is in the result of 
the activity. 

But when there happens to be a material reward for 



342 Education and the General Welfare 

work, it becomes to a certain extent the worker's field of free 
ideas. What to do with the proceeds is a matter for him to 
decide. 

VII 

However, at this point we pass to a seventh type. In case 
the worker's wages are always required for his bare exist- 
ence, there are no free ideas connected with the reward for 
his work. If he has no surplus, he has no choice whether 
to spend or to save and if to spend, what for. So much as 
he receives for his work is only necessary expense for " up- 
keep " — food, clothing, and shelter. This is the type of 
work that animals and human slaves that are well cared for 
have in common ; the return is only sufficient to keep the ani- 
mated machine in repair for continued work. This is also 
the parallel of the situation of the household drudge who 
has a just sufficient allowance. 

VIII 

In all the preceding types of activity there is in no case a 
denial of a consciousness of being a cause. This conscious- 
ness is confirmed when one sees the result of the work or 
social manifestations of approval. This is a source of grati- 
fication to the humblest worker. It is one of the most 
powerful motives to excel in all the fields of art and skill. 
One of the most precious rewards for the school child is to 
have the product of his work exhibited with his name at- 
tached to it. 

Imagine that neither the worker nor any one else that he 
knows of ever recognizes the product as his work, and add 
to this the denial of free ideas and the gratification of the 



The Play Instinct in School Work 343 

self before mentioned, and we come to the level when the in- 
dividual is no longer a person but a machine. The mere ma- 
chine knows nothing, needs to know nothing of results. 

In summary, the eight types of activity may be grouped 
as follows: i to v(a) are forms of play; v(b) to viii are 
forms of work. In general, when an activity is limited in 
scope and tends to uniformity of method and sameness of 
results, we have work; when an activity has a wide range 
of possibilities, a possible variety of incidents, a fixed per- 
sonal responsibility, and an unpredicted outcome, we have 
play. 

Other Forms of Play — Preliminary Practice. This 
has usually all the appearance of the form of work called 
drill. It is, however, to be classed as play simply because 
it is preliminary to it. The tedium of drill work in school 
may be relieved by transforming the activity into a com- 
petitive game. Many teachers hold, however, that even so 
some routine drill work is absolutely necessary. But even 
this may be relieved by having the children understand that 
they are preparing for the competitive game which is to 
follow at once or at some other period of the day. This is 
a way of vitalizing the most deadening routine drill that 
seems so necessary at times. 

Amusement. In amusement there is a passive interest 
in the activity of some one else. Criticism of the play mo- 
tive in education has been due largely to the confusion be- 
tween play as an active and play as a passive interest. 
When people condemn teaching that aims to keep the child 
interested, they have in mind a form of exercise in which 
the teacher is active and the children passive; they cannot 
mean one that engages the sum of the child's active energies. 



344 Education and the General Welfare 

And it is correct to assume that the kind of appeal that the 
school child requires is one that engages the total self as in 
active play, and not one that engages only the contempla- 
tive interest which characterizes amusement. There are 
educational values of a high order in amusement, too, but 
they are adapted to the adult mind rather than that of the 
child. The child's interest in the appreciation side for in- 
stance of music, the drama, and the arts is limited; but on 
the productive side, in making music, in acting, in printing, 
and in modeling, its energies may be fully engaged. 

Dawdling. Dawdling is keeping busy at one or more 
tasks to excuse ourselves for shirking another which we 
greatly dislike. An apt illustration of this is given by Wil- 
liam James : " I know of a person, for example, who will 
poke the fire, set chairs straight, pick dust-specks from the 
floor, arrange his table, snatch up the newspaper, take down 
any book which catches his eye, trim his nails, waste the 
morning anyhow, in short, and all without premeditation, 
simply because the only thing he ought to attend to is a 
noonday lesson in formal logic which he detests. Any- 
thing but that." 

Relation of the Scientific Interest to the Drudgery of 
Work. Much of the work that is usually regarded as 
drudgery may be relieved by the illumination of knowledge. 
If science and method can be applied to any activity it may 
reveal an ever deepening interest. This has come to re- 
deem the work of the household and the farm. The ap- 
plication of chemistry, botany, and physics has done much to 
dignify the labor and mitigate its drudgery. 

In the schoolroom the application of individual psychol- 
ogy will also relieve to a great extent certain routine ex- 



The Play Instinct m School Work 345 

ercises and improve the teaching. The correction of Eng- 
Hsh papers will be more interesting when the teacher can 
discover in them manifestations of individual character. 
The opportunities for this will be much enhanced if the 
exercises given are of such a kind as will allow a latitude 
for the expression of individuality. 

Mental Parallels of Physical Types of Work. Activ- 
ities that are almost exclusively mental in character are to 
be classified in the same way as the physical types. In the 
mental field we also have as the first type, activity for its 
own sake. This is uncontrolled association of ideas, the 
activity of our periods of relaxation which at times we call 
reverie. 

Then come controlled associations, which in play are self- 
imposed. 

The third type is the game in which objective symbols 
guide the mental operations. 

The fourth is illustrated by dramatic constructions. 

The fifth is illustrated by artistic activity including the 
creation of literature and music. When this is done under 
contract as, for instance, in literary hack work — work 
under contract to produce so many lines at a certain time 
for specified pay — it is not art but work. 

Under the first part of five (Va) comes the management 
of an enterprise. The manager has a wide scope of activ- 
ity, is to a large extent free to choose his time, exercises in- 
itiative, takes responsibility, meets unforeseen emergencies, 
cannot absolutely predict results as a whole, hopes for the 
best. The operatives of the factory have little responsibility 
except to be on time and be faithful machines. If the enter- 
prise is failing for the time being they need not even know 



34^ Education and the General Welfare 

about it. A certain type of mind dislikes to take the initia- 
tive and shuns personal responsibility everywhere. Persons 
of this type are happiest when their activities are reduced to 
the automatic, for it relieves them of the responsibility of 
having to initiate thought about anything. The more orig- 
inal type of mind will not long be content with monotony, 
will rather study out a machine to do the work. 

In school we have a type who are soon wearied of drill 
exercises and prefer original or concrete problems, another 
who are helpless with problems that require them to initiate 
thought. These prefer the mechanical mental operations 
and never seem to weary of drill. 

Summary — How to Vitalize School Work. Finally 
to summarize what may already be inferred, to put vitality 
into school work — stimulate individual initiative in thought 
and act, assign individual work as far as possible to cultivate 
a favorable attitude to assuming responsibility, stimulate in- 
dividual and group competition within reasonable limits, 
make the work constructive rather than contemplative and 
critical, exhibit results of individual pupils, give opportuni- 
ties for discovery, dramatize history and stories, let the chil- 
dren imitate the contemporaneous political and social activi- 
ties of adults, let the children plan their general school activi- 
ties, avoid monotony, and in general assume the attitude of 
deference and courtesy to each individual child in order to 
nourish the sense of individual significance and of being a 
responsible part of the school community. 



CHAPTER XX 
Food and Sleep 

Prophylaxis. The school activities for which plans are 
made with the utmost care so that every minute of a child's 
time may be educative in all ways, cover a period of only 
one-fourth or less of the whole day. The school should not 
obtrude unnecessarily upon anything that is within the pecul- 
iar province of the home, but it is a matter of great im- 
portance to the economy of its management that some ac- 
count be taken of the child's life out of school hours. If 
the whole round of each child's daily activities were sur- 
veyed, it would clear up many of the problems of discipline 
and would reveal to what extent the practices and attitudes 
of the home support or hinder the requirements of the 
school. 

The kind of home life that is good for the physical, 
mental, and moral well-being of the child is the very thing 
needful for the child in school. The whole child goes to 
school. What he is for three-fourths of the time at home 
he will be probably for one-fourth of the time at school. 
This is most strictly true on the physical side of his nature. 
The firm basis of general health must be established at home. 
But modern psychology goes further by contending that pre- 
ventive physical hygiene has a close relation to both mental 
and moral prophylaxis; that is, a proper physical regimen 
is to a large extent preventive of all ills whether physical, 
mental, or moral. 

347 



34^ Education and the General Welfare 

As we have seen in other chapters, there are many ills the 
flesh is prone to, but there is also possible an increase in the 
power of resistance which will reduce the virulence of dis- 
ease or repel its attack altogether. And nature, with an 
accumulated strength of many centuries of race survival, 
prepares man for arduous physical labor, for mental work, 
and to go through moral crises, by means of good and suffi- 
cient food, regular and sufficient sleep, and a certain amount 
of well-distributed recreative exercise. 

While this is true for all people old and young, it has spe- 
cial force as related to the children of school and pre-school 
age. For the value of these preventive measures is not alone 
good for day by day needs but they are indispensable in 
building up a stock of the fundamental resources of charac- 
ter that will last through the future years. 

Food. When children come to school with insufficient 
nutrition and energy from improper or too little food to 
profit by the work undertaken, something must be done at 
once if the efforts of both teacher and pupil are not to be 
wasted. School feeding has resulted in increased efficiency 
and improved behavior in school, but it is a temporary 
measure. It is not the final solution of the problem. The 
child needs three good meals a day to build for growth and 
permanent strength. Undernourished children may suffer 
the consequences of their condition long after the immediate 
cause of their ailment no longer exists. " Of children born 
in the famine years in Europe, in 1816 and 181 7, an un- 
usually large number proved unfit for military service." ^ 
We are told that for lack of sufficient fat in their ration 

1 Tyler : " Growth and Education," New York, 1906, p. 121, Houghton 
Mifflin Company. 



Food and Sleep 349 

there was a great increase in tuberculosis among Belgian 
children. In all the warring countries a rise in the mor- 
tality from tuberculosis is reported, presumably due to the 
extraordinary food restrictions. Waywardness and juve- 
nile crime have also been everywhere on the increase. 

The rapid rise in the cost of foodstuffs has made the 
need for home instruction universal and immediate. In a 
study made under the auspices of the New York Associa- 
tion for Improving the Condition of the Poor it was found 
that y6 per cent of the families studied were getting less 
than the standard requirements of food. But the problem 
of food and health conservation affects all classes alike. 
Science must be brought into the kitchen to guide in the selec- 
tion of what is required to sustain life in normal health. 

" Never before has it been more necessary for the housekeeper to 
bear constantly in mind the fundamental facts regarding food 
values and food requirements. In some cases the new situation 
may simply have constrained her to cut out certain luxuries from 
her grocery list. In other cases it has been necessary to spend 
more money for food, even at the expense of other necessities of 
life. Some families are simply doing without food which is abso- 
lutely essential. Economy there must be, but it should be economy 
carried on with intelligence. The diet of children must be not only 
well chosen but plentiful, if the youngsters are to grow and 
thrive." ^ 

This situation has more than ever before made the prob- 
lem of children's food the common interest of the home 
and the school. Fortunately, it finds at hand a household 
economics department established some years ago with a 

i"War Prices and Undernourished Children," Good Housekeeping 
Magazine, July, 1918. Reprinted as a publication of the Child Health 
Organization, New York. 



350 Education and the General Welfare 

well-settled theory of food values. There is no longer a 
disconcerting conflict of opinions in regard to what is proper 
food and the needed amount and proportion of its different 
elements that are needed to sustain the body in health. But 
the teachers of cooking can no longer under present con- 
ditions limit the field of work to the schoolroom. Here not 
all the children are reached and the need of instruction for 
parents upon whom the problem presses most heavily is uni- 
versal and immediate. 

Food Campaigns. Hence, the public school systems 
through their home economics department are making sys- 
tematic campaigns to bring to the knowledge of the parent 
the simple facts of food economy and the proper feeding of 
children. The first step is to make a survey of dietaries in 
the homes in order to find what knowledge is lacking. In 
one city, for instance, in order to obtain data for more in- 
telligent service in the lunch room, a survey was made in 
regard to the amount of milk children drink daily at home. 
This revealed rather surprising conditions. 

The investigation concerned 13,601 children of the kin- 
dergarten and elementary schools. It revealed the fact 
that only 7 per cent had the amount of milk a child should 
have every day and that more than half had no milk at all. 
The following are the figures in detail for these schools : 

Number of Children Milk Used per Day Other Beverages 

13,601 I qt. I pt. >4 pt. Coffee Tea Beer 

7% 19% 20% 37% 18% 9% 

Total 46% Total 54% 

It seems from these figures that only 46 per cent of the 
children use milk and that 54 per cent use none at all but 



Food and Sleep 351 

instead drink coffee, tea, or beer. These facts revealed at 
once the direction the campaign for better child feeding 
should take. To encourage a more general use of milk, 
leaflets were prepared for free distribution on " Milk " and 
'' Ways of Using More Milk " with the purpose of bringing 
to the attention of the parents certain well-ascertained facts 
about milk as a diet, such as the following : 

Milk is our most valuable food. 

Milk is meat and drink. 

Whole milk contains everything necessary for growth and for 
good health. 

Milk is the one best food for children under sixteen. 

One quart of milk costing 15 cents, gives the same value as one 
pound of lean beef, costing 35 cents, or one pound of eggs (9), 
costing 35 cents, or one quart of oysters, costing 75 cents. 

Save in other foods if necessary but not on milk. 

Give your child a quart of milk every day for his chance to 
grow and be strong. Milk will help him to win in his fight against 
disease. 

Milk and bread with cereals, fruit and vegetables should be the 
daily diet of boys and girls. 

Notice children who do not get milk; most of them look pale 
and undernourished. 

Does your child get a quart of milk every day?^ 

Theory and Practice. A food campaign such as is here 
described is an administrative measure, concerning chiefly 
the home economics department. It is directed to the 
parent. The pupil in school may be reached in various 
ways. He learns something of food values and prices at 
luncheon time from the outlines and tables on the blackboard. 
In connection with the book work in hygiene he learns, too, 

1 Seventh Report of the Board of Education, 1917-1918, Louisville, 
Ky., pp. 88^96. 



35^ Education and the General Welfare 

something about good food habits ^ such as being on time at 
meals, eating at regular times and not between meals, learn- 
ing to like food that is good for him, avoiding highly sea- 
soned foods, taking time to eat, being clean, and being of 
good cheer while eating. And then, too, children are ap- 
pealed to in terms of patriotic duty to make themselves 
strong for the service of their country. 

A practical application of the rules of diet is, of course, 
the only way to solve the problem in all those children of 
lowered vitality who especially need help. In the larger 
cities there are thousands of children suffering from malnu- 
trition. The demonstrations that have been made with 
groups of such children prove that increased weight and 
vitality will follow proper feeding.^ 

How a Teacher May Know Whether a Child Is Well- 
Nourished. There are certain well known marks of malnu- 
trition which have always been recognized. These are a 
dull expression, pale cheeks, and dark rings around the eyes 
as against bright eyes, red lips, and rosy cheeks. There 
have been attempts to measure it in more scientific ways. 
But of all, the most important index of nutrition is The Re- 
lation of Weight to Height. To this have been added the 
annual gain in zv eight and height and the general appear- 
ance of the child. The last named is often unreliable, 
the second shows wide variation in different races, com- 
munities, and families. The first remains as the only one 
that it is safe to depend on. 

1 " The Diet of the School Child," 1918, Child Health Organization, 
New York, 15 pp. 

2 " Demonstration and Its Application," Child Health Organization, 
New York, 14 pp. 



Food and Sleep 



353 



Height and Weight Table ^ 

The standard or normal weight for a child is found where the 
horizontal column opposite height crosses the vertical column 
under age. The age is taken at nearest birthday. 

CHART XXV 

For Boys 
Illustration — The standard weight for a boy 57 inchesi high and 



13 years old is 83 pounds. 
















Height 


5 ^ 


7 


8 


9 


10 


II 


12 


13 


14 


Inches 


Yrs. Yr 


s. Yrs. 


Yrs 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


39 


35 


















40 


37 3^ 


^ 
















41 


39 4 


3 
















42 


41 4 


2 
















43 


43 4' 


\ 44 
















44 


45 4 


5 46 
















45 


.... 4 


7 47 


48 














46 


.... 4( 


P 50 


50 














47 




•• 51 


52 


52 












48 




•• 53 


54 


55 












49 






55 


56 


57 










50 






58 


59 


59 










51 






60 


61 


62 


62 








52 








64 


65 


65 








53 








67 


68 


68 


68 






54 








70 


71 


71 


72 






55 










74 


75 


76 


76 




56 








.... 


77 


79 


79 


80 




57 












81 


82 


83 


84 


58 












84 


85 


87 


88 


59 








1 . . . . 






88 


89 


91 



1 From Standards of Nutrition and Growth, Child Health Organiza- 
tion, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York. 



354 Education and the General Welfare 



Height 
Inches 


5 
Yrs. 


6 

Yrs. 


7 
Yrs. 


8 
Yrs. 


9 
Yrs. 


10 
Yrs. 


II 

Yrs. 


12 

Yrs. 


13 
Yrs. 


14 

Yrs. 


60 
















90 


92 

97 
100 
104 


94 

99 

102 


61 
















62 


















63 
64 

65 



















106 



















112 
tt8 























CHART XXVI 
For Girls 

Illustration — The standard weight for a girl 50 inches high 
and 9 years old is 59 pounds. 



Height 


5678 


9 


10 


II 


12 


13 


14 


Inches 


Yrs. Yrs. Yrs. Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


Yrs. 


39 


34 














40 


35 37 














41 


39 39 














42 


41 42 42 














43 


43 44 44 














44 


45 46 46 














45 


• • • • 47 47 47 














46 


....48 49 50 














47 


50 51 


53 












48 


52 53 


54 












49 


55 


56 


57 










50 


57 


59 


60 










51 




61 


62 


63 








52 




65 


66 


67 








53 




.... 


68 


68 


69 






54 






70 


71 


71 






55 









7^ 


73 


74 






Courtesy of the Child Health Organization 

Figure 9 



Food and Sleep 



355 



Height 
Inches 


5 
Yrs. 


6 

Yrs. 


7 
Yrs. 


8 
Yrs. 


9 

Yrs. 


10 
Yrs. 


II 

Yrs. 


12 

Yrs. 


13 
Yrs. 


14 
Yrs. 


56 
57 
58 
59 
60 














76 


77 
79 
85 


77 
82 
88 
92 
97 
99 
104 


79 
85 
93 
95 
99 
102 


































.... 
























61 


















62 


















105 
107 


63 





































Only scales with bar and weights should be purchased for school 
use. Spring scales with dial face are not very durable and are likely 
to get out of order soon. 

Measurements for height should be taken with the child standing 
with feet close together and close against the measuring rod, or for 
school use a measuring tape may be tacked against a wall and a book 
placed on the child's head, edgewise, to mark his height. 

Every school should have a weighing and measuring 
equipment. A ten cent tape line tacked against the wall 
and a pair of scales with bar and weights will serve the 
purpose.^ 

Nutrition Depends Not on Food Alone. Good food is 
not sufficient to correct malnutrition and bring about an in- 
crease in weight. There must also be fresh air day and 
night and sufficient sleep. 

Sleep. In sleep we have another protective and preven- 
tive function. It is, like food and recreation, a means of 

iHolt, L. E.: "Standards of Nutrition and Growth," 1918, Child 
Health Organization, New York. Standards given here are taken 
from this valuable pamphlet. For details of method and equipment 
consult this same source. For devices by way of tags, classroom 
weight cards, etc., to interest the children in weighing contests write 
Child Health Organization, 289 Fourth Avenue, New York. 



356 Education and the General Welfare 

resistance to the demands made upon our store of energy. 
If, as was held in another chapter, D (disease) is equal to 
M (the cause) over R (vital resistance), sleep is one of 
the three factors which increase R. It is universally pre- 
scribed as a remedy for nervous breakdown. Of the few 
who have made extensive investigations of its function, 
nearly all agree with the conclusions of Claperede, who says : 
" Sleep is a protective function, an instinct having for its 
end, in striking the animal with inertia, to prevent it from 
arriving at a condition of exhaustion. We sleep, not be- 
cause we are poisoned or exhausted but so that we shall be 
neither poisoned nor exhausted." That is to say, we sleep 
not because we are poisoned by the toxin of fatigue but to 
prevent such a condition. 

The Amount of Sleep. Authorities on sleep are not 
agreed as to the exact amount of time that is required for 
it at different ages. The estimates given by several of them, 
for children of school age, vary as follows : 



Age 


Estimates vary from 


5-6 


II -13^ hours 


7 


io>^-i3 


8 


ioy2-i2y2 


9 


ioy2-i2 


10 


10 -ii>^ 


II 


9/2-1 1 


12 


9 -io>^ 


13 


8>^-io 


14 


8^-10 


15 


s -9y2 


i6 


8 ~9 


17 


8 -9 


i8 


8 -9 



Food and Sleep 357 

The uncertainty as to the amount of time that should be 
taken for sleep by school children does not hold for those 
of pre-school age. Infants under one year should have a 
total of fifteen hours in twenty-four, under two they should 
have not less than fourteen, under three to five not less than 
thirteen. For all children under twelve it is safe to incline 
to the maximum estimates given above. For children of 
lowered vitality and underweight the maximum hours must 
be taken. In general, it may be said, the younger the child 
the greater the necessity for long and regular hours of 
sleep; for sufficient sleep is one of the factors in building a 
sound physical constitution to which the life of the young 
child is specially devoted, and regular hours make not alone 
for health but in addition are the beginning of habits that 
will prove to have moral value. 

Quality of Sleep. As children grow older a limited loss 
of sleep does not show any ill effects. And for the older 
children the amount of time given to sleep is so much a mat- 
ter of individual habit and need that there seems to be no 
connection between the amount of sleep and efficiency in 
school work. In an investigation by Terman and Hocking 
of 2,692 children between 6 and 20 it was found that " the 
school grades of the ten pupils receiving the smallest amount 
of sleep did not rank below the grades of the average sleeper, 
but instead slightly above." ^ It would seem that quality, 
rather than quantity, combined with regular habits of rising 
and retiring is a matter of importance in the hygiene of 
sleep. This principle may explain why there is a difference 
in the amount of sleep required by different persons. New- 

1 Terman and Hocking: "The Sleep of School Children," Jour. Ed. 
Psy,, Vol. 4, 1913, pp. 138, 199, 269. Bibliography p. 281. 



358 Education and the General Welfare 

ton and Leibnitz, it is stated, required only a few hours of 
interruption from their scholarly labors for sleep. Many 
persons find eight hours hardly sufficient. 

But whatever may be true of adult men and women, for 
school children it is safe to hold to the requirement of regu- 
lar hours, inclining to the maximum of nature's demands for 
those under twelve. Later, perhaps, quality may be im- 
proved by a lessening of the quantity. By the time the child 
has reached the age of twelve or thirteen, proper habits ac- 
cording to individual need should be fairly well established. 
Training should aim at regularity and at finding the mini- 
mum amount necessary to insure hygienic quality. 

Quality of Sleep an Effect. But the quality of a per- 
son's sleep is an effect as often as it is a cause. It is a 
symptom of the physical, particularly nervous, condition of 
the child. One of the well-known causes of a disturbed 
sleep is indigestion due to improper diet, eating at unseason- 
able hours, gorging food after a long period of deprivation. 
The use of tea or coffee, or of cocoa or chocolate late in the 
day, is generally regarded as harmful and as bringing in 
its train disturbances or the postponement of sleep. It is 
also one of the many ill effects of obstructed breathing. 
Overstimulation whether brought on by physical or mental 
agencies is unfavorable to sound sleep. Extreme nervous- 
ness such as is indicated by nightmare or dreams of horrid 
monsters, of falling from giddy heights, of being lost in 
the woods, should arouse the concern of the parent and the 
teacher and justifies calling the attention of the school or 
family physician. 

Sleep and Home Conditions. The living conditions in 



Food and Sleep 359 

the homes of both the poor and the well-to-do are often un- 
favorable to hygienic sleep. The retiring hour and the ris- 
ing hour are both often too late. The rising hour should 
not be later than seven o'clock for all children above eight 
years of age. Then too children should sleep alone in a 
room and under any circumstances alone in a bed. They 
should sleep with windows open to allow a current of air to 
pass through the room at all seasons of the year. Any one 
can find on investigation that this necessary condition of 
healthful sleep is altogether too rare. This is especially true 
of country houses. The windows should remain open 
throughout the year, adjustment to the changing seasons 
being made by the amount of bedding. This may not be 
possible in the poorest families. Poverty is often the cause 
also of insufficient room; the one-room tenement where the 
parents and all the children eat, bathe, and sleep is not un- 
known in this country — a condition which for moral as 
well as physical hygiene should be forbidden by law in 
every state. 

In Terman's investigation referred to above it was found 
that only 3.1 per cent of the children enjoyed open-air 
sleeping rooms and this even in the mild and equable climate 
of California. It is common in many homes to shut the 
windows tight in cold weather '' to keep the warm air in " 
and thus save fuel. The teacher should know which of the 
children are poor sleepers and should find the causes of the 
disturbance and seek to correct the evils in cooperation with 
the parents. 

John Locke on Sleep. It will be instructive to quote 
on the hygiene of sleep, John Locke, the founder of hygiene 



360 Education and the General Welfare 

and the apostle of discipline as a hardening process, and 
compare his views with those that obtain in our own time. 
He says : 

" Of all that looks soft and effeminate, nothing is more to be 
indulg'd Children, than Sleep. In this alone they are to be per- 
mitted to have their full satisfaction; nothing contributing more 
to the Growth and Health of Children, than Sleep. All that is to 
be regulated in it, is, in what Part of the twenty-four Hours they 
should take it ; which will easily be resolved, by only saying that 
it is of great Use to accustom 'em to rise early in the Morning. 
It is best so to do for Health ; and he that, from his Childhood, 
has, by a settled Custom, made rising betimes easy and familiar 
to him, will not, when he is a Man, waste the best and most useful 
Part of his Life in Drowsiness, and lying a-bed. . . . 

" Though I have said, a large allowance of Sleep, even as much as 
they will take, should be made to Children when they are little ; yet 
I do not mean, that it should always be continued to them in so 
large a Proportion, and they suffer'd to indulge a drowsy Laziness 
in their Bed, as they grow up bigger. But whether they should 
begin to be restrained at seven or ten Years old, or any other 
Time, is impossible to be precisely determined. Their Tempers, 
Strength, and Constitution must be consider'd. But sometime be- 
tween seven and fourteen, if they are too great Lovers of their 
Beds, I think it may be seasonable to begin to reduce them by 
Degrees to about eight hours, which is generally Rest enough for 
healthy grown People. . . . Great Care should be taken in waking 
them, that it be not done hastily, nor with a loud or shrill Voice, 
or any other sudden violent Noise. This often affrights Children, 
and does them great Harm ; and sound Sleep thus broken off, with 
sudden Alarms, is apt enough to discompose any one. When 
Children are to be wakened out of their Sleep, be sure to begin 
with a low Call and some gentle Motion, and so draw them out of 
it by degrees, and give them none but kind Words and Usage, 'till 
they are come perfectly to themselves, and being quite dress'd, you 
are sure they are thoroughly awake. The being forced from their 



Food and Sleep 361 

Sleep, how gently soever you do it, is Pain enough for them; and 
Care should be taken not to add any other Uneasiness to it, espe- 
cially such that may terrify them." ^ 

Effect of Too Much Sleep. It is generally agreed 
among students of sleep that there may among adults be 
those who get into the habit of taking too much sleep. In- 
creasing the amount of time taken for sleep has no necessary 
relation to the quality except to reduce it. According to 
Marie de Manaceine too much sleep results in an enfeeble- 
ment of consciousness through lack of exercise and in " an 
adaptation of the vessels to an abnormal state of nutritive 
circulation, to the detriment of the functional circulation." ^ 

The Cause of Sleep and Cure of Sleeplessness. In the 
numerous experiments made by Sidis, he came to the con- 
clusion that sleep may be artificially induced by limiting 
the sensory impressions by closing the eyes of his subjects, 
inhibiting voluntary movements, and applying a monoto- 
nous stimulus. He found that children reacted more read- 
ily than adults to his methods of bringing on sleep, account- 
ing for the fact " by the comparatively small amount of vari- 
ability of conscious activity present in the child and the 
variability of mental content being an important factor in 
keeping up the freshness, continuity, and qualitative inten- 
sity of consciousness. Now, as the child depends entirely 
for the variability of its consciousness on muscular activity 
and external impressions, we can well realize that when 
those sources become limited and monotonous the child 
falls under the influence of all the important conditions 

1 Locke : " Thoughts on Education," Pitt Press Ed., pp. 14-16. 

2 Quoted in Bruce : " Sleep and Sleeplessness," Boston, 1915, p. 31, 
Little, Brown and Company. 



362 Education and the General Welfare 

requisite for the induction of sleep. The child, in short, 
has no inner wealth of mental life to fall upon; it has little 
if any resources; that is why it falls an easy prey to sleep 
when the external resources lose their variability, become 
uniform, and monotonous." ^ 

From this it becomes evident that when sleeplessness is 
not due to physical ills, it is to be accounted for among 
adults by subjective mental occupation, by worries and men- 
tal distress, with the self as the focus of thought. It may 
also be caused by such mental occupations as are carried on 
during the waking time, such as could then too be carried 
on with the eyes closed. The cure for this, therefore, 
would be effected by taking on objective interests as in 
games, sports, fishing, hunting, etc., such as can be shut out 
of the consciousness by the closing of the eyes. And 
sedentary habits should be exchanged for those of more or 
less strenuous activity so that when the attitude of repose 
is taken there may be a change to limited activity and 
monotony. 

1 Sidis : " An Experimental Study of Sleep," R. G. Badger, Boston. 



CHAPTER XXI 
Recreation 

Without activity in the open air there can be no value 
to a regimen of food and sleep. The round of life requires 
fatigue before sleep, and hunger before food. Work or 
play in the open air will bring both a healthy fatigue and a 
normal appetite. 

Nature provides the impulse for activity in children be- 
cause they need it for their physical and mental develop- 
ment. Their impatience with any long-continued activity 
is nature's way of avoiding a limited routine and special- 
ization of powers before growth has ceased. It is believed 
that too early a limitation of activity to the narrow and me- 
chanical lines of work before the nerve-centers are fully 
developed by all-around play will produce a fatigue of a 
mild but chronic sort that will affect the whole of adult Hfe. 
It has been held that the tramps of a country are recruited 
from those children whose play life was prematurely cut 
short by work. If the child's activity cannot be work, it 
must be play, and organized play; for children will not be 
able to plan spontaneously among themselves a sufficient 
variety of games either to keep up the interest or for all- 
around development. 

Benefits of Play. Teachers believe in play as a growing 
modern need under the conditions of life in the cities. It is 
hygienic as related to normal individual growth and the 

.363 



364 Education and the General Welfare 

normal functioning of the various organs. It is educative, 
because when not formally imposed it enlists the whole self 
of the child ; there is no exercise in which sense perception 
is so keen, discrimination so fine, mind and body so alert, 
with such quickness of decision and promptness of action, 
as in play. The school usually gives few opportunities for 
the exercise of mental powers on actual objective material 
except in the activities of the playground. If a child's play 
life is greatly limited or lacking it will have nothing left 
but its subjective self to be active in. It will more and more 
renounce the actual world, live in daydreams, seek solitude, 
avoid play and playmates, become estranged from society, 
confused in the presence of others, uncertain, self-neglect- 
ful, and irresponsible. To correct such a condition an en- 
larging activity with playmates and playthings is perhaps the 
only known remedial measure. 

It is recreative and recuperative. It is an antidote for 
fatigue. Perhaps in some of its forms it realizes race 
memories or remote activities that had decisive value in the 
survival of the species. It restores the powers used up in 
work or worry. 

It is practice. Through the play activities movements 
are learned which will be of service in the more serious 
activities of life. Play may to a certain extent anticipate 
the activities of productive industry. 

It keeps children out of mischief such as fighting, teasing, 
pitching pennies, and predatory acts. It is estimated that 
an adequate and well-administered playground prevents or 
cures 50 per cent of juvenile delinquency.^ In the games 

^Curtis: "Does Public Recreation Pay?" The American City, I9I3» 
Vol. VIII. 



Recreation 365 

recognizing the need of rules and obedience to them in 
order to have play at all, is a practical lesson in the principles 
of civics. Other effects to be noted in passing are related 
to physical hygiene. The play exercise improves the appe- 
tite for food and checks the desire for narcotics and alco- 
holic stimulants. It gives the maximum, benefits of the open 
air conditions in which it takes place. The value of food 
and fresh air depends upon the hunger of the cells and not 
upon eating the food and breathing the air. Physical exer- 
cise prepares the cells for their food. It prepares the mind 
and body for refreshing sleep. It is closely related to sex 
hygiene. It provides the occasions that induce regular 
habits in bathing. These habits established after exercise 
that starts perspiration are regarded by authorities in the 
matter almost as valuable as the exercise itself. 

Value of Open Air Recreation. All classes of exercise 
or games are always most effective in the open air. Here 
there is room, fresh air, and usually sunshine. We have 
seen in past chapters that the school diseases make their 
appearance chiefly during the shut-in months. Inside the 
dust gathers and rising slowly is suspended in the air during 
exercises; outside, there is less dust and it is less danger- 
ous. Besides, the outside provides the natural stimuli to 
activity. The tendency is growing everywhere to have the 
physical activity of school children take place in the open. 
There are those who believe that a gymnasium is not a 
profitable investment and some predict that it will in time 
be superseded by the well-equipped and spatial outside play- 
ground, where pupils will take their exercises in all seasons 
and weathers of the years just as they have always done in 
seasonal sports. 



366 Education and the General Welfare 

Universal Play Impulse. It is natural for the young 
child to play. Even among wild animals the struggle for 
existence is never too great to allow leisure for play under 
parent protection. The common sense of humanity appre- 
ciates games; they are the most ancient of all human insti- 
tutions. Through all the turmoil of change from the be- 
ginnings of recorded history the children of the world from 
generation to generation and from nation to nation have 
joined hands in happy play. Empires, religions, and civil- 
izations have come and gone but the simple games of child- 
hood have remained almost the same in unbroken succession. 
More than forty of the simple games that the children of 
the world play to-day were played in the streets of Athens 
in the most glorious epoch of ancient Greece. 

Like science, literature, music, and art, play speaks a uni- 
versal language. There is no history more ancient than that 
of the doll and the cock-horse. Plutarch tells us that Age- 
silaos, the king of Sparta, played horse by riding a stick 
among groups of playing children. Socrates the philoso- 
pher was found by the young Alcibiades playing horse in the 
same way with his children. Greece was the greatest player 
nation of the world. The Greek played from childhood to 
gray old age. The first school for the Greek child was ^a 
play school. Here he learned courage and restraint, self- 
denial and patience, love and sacrifice. The Olympic game 
festivals were under the special patronage of the gods. 
With the physical development the games brought about 
came health, strength, mental growth, and beauty of form 
and proportion, which were all under divine favor. The 
play festivals were to the Greek people the greatest pleasures 
of life and it is said they could not conceive of a future 



Recreation 367 

abode of the blest without a place for games. When the 
ten thousand heroes of the Anabasis reached the Mediter- 
ranean from the deserts of Asia, it was by arranging a 
series of competitive sports that they made known their 
gratitude to the gods. Play was worship. 

It was the other way in the Middle Ages. In the severe 
ideals of that period toil was worship. It was then thought 
that exercises such as running, tilting, stone-throwing, wres- 
tling, and jumping were devices of the Evil One '' for cap- 
turing souls with pride." However, the renaissance re- 
formers saw in athletic games a way of occupying minds 
that would otherwise be given over to evil-doing. Co- 
menius regarded physical training as an essential part of 
school instruction and emphasized the need of suitable play- 
grounds adjacent to the school. Basedow trained his pupils 
in " racing, wrestling, poising, fencing, dancing, — in short, 
in everything that gives strength to the nerves, agility to 
the limbs, keenness to the senses, and firmness, mobility, 
and strength to the whole body." ^ 

It is widely claimed that the " nations that have given the 
most attention to the care of the body have not only been of 
superior quality physically but also have invariably attained 
the greatest mental preeminence.^ Ancient Greece, re- 
garded by many who are in a position to know as superior 
to any other nation in history, devoted more time to the 
physical training of her youth, according to Grote, than to 
all other branches combined. 

^Kotelman: "School Hygiene" (not dated), C. W. Bardeen, Syra- 
cuse, New York. 

- Sargent : " Physical Education,'' Ginn and Company, New York, 
1906. 



368 Education and the General Welfare 

The larger modern nations have given much attention to 
the physical training of school children, Germany being 
known the world over for her system of gymnastics and 
England for athletic games and sports. The American 
predilection is like England's in favor of games and sports, 
and American athletes have been singularly successful in 
international contests. 

The modern Olympic games, which the coming of the 
World War interrupted, are a revival of the famous games 
of Greece. The plan for them formulated in 1894 by 
Pierre de Coubertin, of Paris, provided that contests in ath- 
letic sports open to all nations should be held every four 
years in one of the great capitals of the world. American 
contestants have made splendid records in these Olympiads, 
carrying off highest honors in several of them. In the 
fifth and last held at Stockholm, Sweden, in 19 12, the repre- 
sentatives from the United States led by many points; 
Sweden coming second, and Great Britain, Finland, Ger- 
many, and France following in order.^ 

Physical Fitness as a Patriotic Duty. A nation must 
not only keep well but also physically fit for whatever emer- 
gency that may arise. The work that is done along these 
lines will be most fruitful of abiding results in children of 
school age. All agree that infancy and childhood is the 
time to lay the physical basis sure for manhood and woman- 
hood. No other claim supersedes this. Nature begins the 
education of the child in this way from the first minutes 
of life. If mental development did not keep pace with 
physical growth, it could wait. From the patriotic point of 
view we should be reminded of the aim of education as 

1 The Independent, New York, Vol. 7:^, p. 172. 



Recreation 369 

Milton defines it : "I call a complete and generous edu- 
cation that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and 
magnanimously all the offices, both public and private, of 
peace and war." 

Exercises in Physical Training. Two general types of 
activities of interest to teachers may be distinguished: 
formal exercises, and plays and games. Every day in most 
schools a part of the time is devoted to exercises in physi- 
cal training for relaxation from sitting still at a desk and 
doing mental work. These are arm, leg, head and trunk 
movements, wand exercises, etc., given in obedience to com- 
mands. They require action in common with chin forward, 
chest out, head up, mind alert, and readiness to obey com- 
mands. They include marching, running, and dancing. 
They are intended to restore the body to normal functioning 
after close concentration; also, to develop the parts of the 
body so exercised, to form habits of good posture, to con- 
trol impulsive movements, and to cultivate a graceful car- 
riage. When these exercises are accompanied by music 
pleasure in their rhythm is much increased. They may be 
an improvised part of the program at any time during the 
day that the children seem to need relief in a change from a 
mental to a physical occupation. Or regular periods of con- 
siderable length may be devoted to them every day. In all 
cases, however, they must be carried on with all the windows 
wide open from the bottom. And this is only for the short 
exercises; when they are as long as fifteen minutes they 
should always be in the open air. 

Interest in this kind of exercises has lately been revived 
because certain of them are in their nature like the military 
drill that has been adopted for high school training in 



37'o Education and the General Welfare 

some of the states. Since 19 16 fourteen states have revised 
their laws or made new ones on the subject of physical edu- 
cation. New York has a state-wide requirement of com- 
pulsory physical education with the minimum of 100 min- 
utes' weekly practice for all school children. Illinois re- 
quires a minimum of one hour weekly for all grades. Four 
states have new laws providing for some form of military 
training in high school.^ The purpose is to develop a 
strong physique and cultivate a manly bearing in boys. 

This kind of exercise has certain values that are not nec- 
essarily military. It is group training in obedience to the 
command of a leader, which may become useful in civil life 
for the orderly disposal of large numbers of persons in the 
performance of a uniform and definite duty. However, 
mast teachers prefer plays and games to formal exercises, 
and the prevailing opinion of school men is unfavorable to 
military training in the public schools. 

Playground Interests. There are many playground 
games available for all schools, one book listing and describ- 
ing 209 for elementary schools alone. ^ Playground inter- 
ests are wide and varied. They have been divided into 
four classes. There is first the group of Directed Play- 
ground Activities. ^"^ This comprehends those activities 
which are related to playground apparatus and its proper 

1 Bulletin, 1918, No. State Laws Relating to Education, Enacted in 
1915, 1916, and 1917, U. S. Bureau of Education, 1919. 

2 Bancroft : " Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gym- 
nasium," The Macmillan Company, New York, 1915. 

3 De Groot : " Recreation Facilities in Public Parks," The American 
City, 1914, Vol. X, pp. 8-15. Gives suitable equipment for a children's, 
for a boys' and for a girls' playground, with total cost for each of the 
three. 



Recreation 371 

use. For the smaller children this kind of play is largely 
individual, consisting in the use of the sand-bin, the wading 
pool, the slides, swings, ladders, strides, etc., etc. 

The second group of interests is Traditional Track and 
Field Athletics. This is for the older children who delight 
in competitive tests of strength and speed. This requires 
running tracks, high jump sets, shot-put equipment, pole 
vault sets, broad jump lanes, etc., etc. The third group 
comprises Traditional Games, the most popular of all, such 
as tennis, basket, foot, and base ball. 

Finally, there are the Sports of the Season, such as ice 
and snow sports, water sports, hiking, bicycling, camping, 
picnics, etc. There is much need of a popular extension of 
interest in outdoor winter sports. The kindergarten is the 
only school that has in its way given a place in the program 
to this interest. The children suitably clothed are taken out 
in the open for a time at frequent intervals in the winter 
months. 

Organization of Play. The history of the outdoor play- 
ground movement began about thirty years ago with the 
establishment of a few children's sand gardens in the city 
of Boston. In 191 5 the city of Chicago had spent more 
than $11,000,000 for recreational centers, which measures 
the remarkable advance of this movement and a broadening 
of its scope so as to include men and women. 

According to statistics collected a few years ago, there 
were then in this country 3,270 supervised playgrounds in 
414 cities with 7,500 summer workers and 1,050 the year 
round. In 163 cities (191 5) school playgrounds were open 
for after-school athletics with 40,000 boys making use of 
them. In northern states facilities for recreation are ex- 



2)72. Education and the General Welfare 

tended by means of flooded areas to provide skating. In 
129 cities there are 524 playgrounds operated under artifi- 
cial lighting in the evenings.^ But this is only a faint be- 
ginning for cities large and small. 

There is a growing demand for extensive rather than in- 
tensive physical training. It is better to have the many 
enjoy the benefits of physical exercise than to train a few 
record-breaking athletes. The schools should be the center 
of the nation-wide program for physical betterment to avoid 
unnecessary duplication of effort and waste of time. 
Whether the aim be higher standards of fitness and health or 
pre-military training, this is a kind of national service that 
school children can give and it should be under the control 
of our educational forces. 

Play in the Country. In the rural districts where so 
often the natural interests of children are neglected for the 
more serious concerns of the moment, there is a large op- 
portunity for organized play. Hamilton County, Tennessee, 
found that the work of a paid organizer of games increased 
attendance in the schools nearly 20 per cent. The open 
country is particularly suited to play festivals and pageants. 
The rural school grounds should be large enough for base 
ball, volley ball, croquet, and basket ball, besides a sand- 
bin, swings, a horizontal bar, a running track, and a jumping 
pit. Every out-door yard should have a sand-bin, a swing, 
and a tent or a playhouse for the small child. 

The country affords diversions and opportunities for ad- 
venture unexcelled. There is swimming, climbing trees, 
fishing, and hunting. And then in the country one can keep 

1 Dealey : " Educational Control of National Service," Pedagogical 
Seminary, Vol. XXIV, p. 245, June, 191 7. 



Recreation 373 

pets comfortably and without interference. For the vari- 
ous forms of spontaneous activities it excites, a fifty-cent 
dog is worth more than a ten thousand dollar gymnasium. 
There are predatory animals to track, chase, and kill, thus 
combining play and conservation. Each rat is said to be 
responsible for the loss of a bushel of grain and each Eng- 
lish sparrow for a peck. For the older girls as well as boys, 
there can be motoring, horseback riding, several kinds of 
ball games, coasting parties, corn roasts, picnics, and camp- 
ing out. Neglect of the country children in this matter of 
recreation, it must be remembered, means neglect of 59 per 
cent of all our school children.^ 

Play in the City. In the city where play is much more 
in evidence than in the country, large numbers are not 
reached by the organized playground movement. In 191 5 
only 25 per cent of New York City children who must seek 
recreation outside of their homes were in attendance upon 
the summer playgrounds. It is often found that a large 
per cent of the children of the city schools do not engage in 
the popular forms of organized ball playing. In a large 
city of the Middle West where the average is high, one out 
of every three boys of the elementary schools over 8 years 
of age does not play base ball. Seventeen per cent of those 
who are over 10 years do not play. Among the high school 
boys only ten per cent do not play but seventy-four per cent 
of the players are not organized. One in five elementary 

lAngell: "Play," Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1912; Cur- 
tis : " Play and Education," The Macmillan Company, New York, 
1914 ; Johnson : " Education by Games and Plays," G.inn and Com- 
pany, Boston, 1907. 



374 Education and the General Welfare 

school boys over lo years, three out of five high school boys, 
and two in five of high school girls play basket ball. In 
all the games the unorganized players are largely in the 
majority. ■'^ 

Ability to swim is a requirement in some schools for 
graduation. It is regarded by the highest authorities as the 
best of all exercises for the fundamental muscle groups, as 
the physiological ideal of activity for feminine development, 
and of all sports the most quickly recuperative. Reports 
from 3,308 public school pupils show the following : 

Per cent who cannot swim 
No. of Pupils Elementary Schools, pupils over 8 High School 

Girls Boys Girls Boys 

3.308 88 45 77 34 

Sports in the Elementary School. The time to learn 
to swim for boys and girls is within the limits of the ele- 
mentary school period. The statistics of swimming indi- 
cate that if the art is not learned by the 14th year only six 
out of a hundred learn after that age.^ More than half of 
the children who swim had learned by the 12th year. Run- 
ning is another exercise that is favorable to the proper de- 
velopment of the larger muscles. This, too, comes properly 
in the period of the elementary school. The favorite period 
for sports involving this exercise for girls is between six and 
ten years. Leaping is at all times a favorable exercise for 
boys and best for girls to engage in before 10 or 12. Row- 
ing is of the highest value ; for girls there is nothing better 

1 Johnson : " Education through Recreation," The Cleveland Survey 
Committee, Cleveland, O. 1915, 94 pp. 

2 Ihid., op. cit., p. 23. 



Recreation 375 

excepting, perhaps, swimming. In general, it seems that 
the time for most active games which involve the muscles 
of the trunk, legs, and arms is the elementary school period. 

A Scale of Play Values. The question arises whether 
there is a scale of values in plays and games or whether 
they are all alike. They have been classified into individual 
and social plays, -^ plays of sensation, plays of motion of 
parts of the body and of foreign bodies, destructive and con- 
structive play. Gutsmuths classified them into movement 
plays and sitting plays; Richter, into plays of reception and 
plays of activity; Froebel, into physical, sense, and mental 
plays. 

It is hardly possible to arrange games in order as higher 
or lower. However, certain of them are popularly regarded 
as less valuable than others. We do not think favorably, 
for instance, of games which allow the child to remain 
passive. The child is in the active rather than the contem- 
plative age. And one may well believe that a child can give 
too much time to a park swing, a merry-go-round, or a 
chute-the-chutes or remain inactive too long with mumblety- 
peg, cards, or tiddly-winks. 

It is also safe to say that not all games are of equal value 
at the same time of life. Adults take to certain childlike 
plays only when they feel like " acting up." Other types 
of play are always proper. If we should tentatively arrange 
plays or games we might put them in the following order : 

Those of rhythmic motion, like rocking and swinging of early 
life — mainly passive movement. 

iGroos: *' The Play of Animals," D. Appleton and Company, New 
York, 1898 ; " Play of Man," D. Appleton and Company, New York, 
1 901. 



^^76 Education and the General Welfare 

Those of motion without rhythm, like sliding. 

Rapid exercise of an acquired power, like running. 

Mastery of a power shown by doing it under difficulties, as in 
hopping on one foot. 

Games in competition, like tag, foot races. 

Social games in which the competitive idea is much reduced as 
they involve larger numbers and emphasize social good will, 
as ring games. 

Imitations of life in the home as with dolls and dollhouses, of occu- 
pations as driving horses, engines, or autos, or of animals and 
persons as in dramatic imitation. 

Constructive plays controlled by an idea to be realized with mate- 
rial means such as sand, clay, blocks, and later with the use 
of tools in fashioning playhouses, toy furniture, kites, boats, 
wagons, and other toys. 
Group games with a system of rules to be observed requires 

a higher order of adjustment, as in baseball. 

Much of the work that children undertake is done in imi- 
tation of their elders and has the force of play. They are 
likely to be influenced by whatever is carried on so that they 
can see it, be it gardening, motoring, music, or drawing. 
But they are interested in the active phase of these occupa- 
tions or diversions, in the actual use of the pencil or brush, 
in singing or playing an instrument; the child will make 
music, or noise, and draw pictures somehow before there will 
be any passive appreciation of these interests. 

Revelations of a Play Census. But it may be said that 
with all the interests that have been enumerated, the ele- 
mentary school period would be overcrowded. Although 
no child pursues all interests, it would still be true that the 
elementary school cannot find time in its present program 
to satisfy all the normal yearnings of childhood. The child 
is not in school long enough. If we allow 9 hours for 



Recreation 



377 



sleep and 3 for meals and other necessary duties each day of 
the year, each child has a total of 4,380 hours a year avail- 
able for work or play. Give him all of 52 Sundays and he 
would still have over 3,100 hours. Of these the school re- 
quires not more than six per day for 200 days or 1,200 
hours. The question is what interests do children under 
working age follow for 1,900 hours? 

A play census taken June 23, 1913, under the direction 
of the Chief Medical Inspector and the Assistant Superin- 
tendent in charge of physical education ^ showed what 
14,683 Cleveland children were doing and where they were 
on that date. 



CHART XXVII 
A Play Census of 14,683 Children on June 2^, 1913 







Boys 


Girls 


Total 


Where they 


On streets 


5,241 


2,558 


7,799 


were seen 


In yards 


1,583 


1,998 


3,581 




In vacant lots 


686 


197 


883 




In playgrounds 


997 


872 


1,869 




In alleys 


413 


138 


551 


What they 


Doing nothing 


3,737 


2,234 


5,961 


were doing 


Playing 


4,601 


2,757 


7,358 




Working 


719 


635 


1,354 


What games 


Baseball 


1,448 


190 


1,638 


they were 


Kites 


482 


49 


531 


playing 


Sand piles 


241 


250 


471 




Tag 


100 


53 


153 




Jackstones 


68 


257 


325 




Dolls 


89 


193 


282 



1 Johnson : " Education through Recreation," op. cit. 



^y8 Education and the General Welfare 
CHART XXVU — cGHtinued 



Sewing 


H 


130 


144 


Housekeeping 


53 


191 


244 


Horse and wagon 


89 


24 


113 


Bicycle riding 


79 


13 


92 


Minding baby 


19 


41 


60 


Reading 


17 


35 


52 


Roller-skating 


18 


29 


47 


Gardening 


13 


14 


27 


Caddy 


6 





6 


Marbles 


2 





2 


Playing in other ways, 








mainly just fooling 


1,863 


1,308 


3,171 



These were children under the age of fifteen when play 
and general activity are required for proper growth; 41 per 
cent of them were doing nothing. They could initiate 
nothing; they needed a leader and organizer. Many were 
seen in the streets, 5 1 per cent, some playing, others not, but 
all were in the dust of traffic among surroundings that are 
not suited to the spirit of play. At the same time 36 play- 
grounds were open but only 1,869 or 11 per cent of these 
children were playing in them. It appears, therefore, that 
school plays and games are not interesting to the large ma- 
jority of school children out of school hours. The influence 
of the school does not carry on during vacations. In all the 
free time which is longer than the school time, recreation 
is unorganized and uncontrolled. The school cannot change 
this without lengthening its day and year. In Gary, Indi- 
ana, the school day is eight hours long, and is divided into 
a period for study, a period for work in the shops or labora- 
tories, and a period for play. It is aimed to control in this 
way the recreation activities of the children. If on account 



Recreation 379 

of the hold of tradition such an adjustment cannot be made, 
the school must in this as in other things definitely extend 
its activities and gain support from outside agencies. The 
problem is to keep young people busy with what they like 
to do. This problem will be taken up in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XXII 
Auxiliary Agencies 

Modem Needs. The school must have organized sup- 
port from the homes and community in directing the recrea- 
tion interests of the young or it must take more time and 
greatly increase its present working forces. But the com- 
plex character of modern life which the children though 
young must to a certain extent share simply because they 
are a part of it, requires an extension of the traditional lines 
of school work in other respects as well. The place of a 
number of the agencies which in one way or another can 
support the work of the school will now be considered. 

Cooperation of the Home. That there is a vital con- 
nection between the home and the school meets us at every 
turn in all the phases of management. However, it is well 
known that cooperation between them is often lacking. 
The fundamental need to secure it is a common sympathy 
and understanding between the two. As the years pass that 
part of the province of education which was in former times 
reserved for the home is ever growing narrower. And 
what the family can no longer do, the school is largely held 
responsible for doing. On the other hand, it is not always 
clear to parents that the sole interest of the teachers is the 
highest welfare of their children. When the school leads 
an isolated and cloistered existence in any community, mis- 

380 



Auxiliary Agencies 381 

understandings are likely to grow and pupils will give un- 
w^illing obedience and resist all efforts at guidance and con- 
trol in an attitude of rebellion. 

How to Win Parents. There is one proper way to win 
parents. It is to take a genuine interest in their children 
and, moreover, to manifest that interest first to the child 
himself by recognizing him as a responsible individual, ap- 
preciating his presence, missing him when absent, knowing 
him by name and by his interests, and acting on the assump- 
tion that he is truthful and trustworthy. He is not just one 
of a number and a mere unit in the mass. In the second 
place, this interest must be made manifest to the parent. A 
way to dispel misunderstandings is by conference. In many 
schools, however, the only time when a parent meets with 
a teacher or principal is when something has happened that 
either side feels must at once be corrected. Conference is 
not of permanent value when it takes place only when dis- 
agreeable matters must be settled. To establish mutual 
confidence and sympathy they must be sought on occasions 
that begin and end in a pleasant frame of mind. 

The vital point of connection between the interest of the 
parent and that of the teacher is not so much in what the 
children may be assumed to be but what they can do. If 
they can get together on this common ground, the school 
visitor or mediator between them, employed in some cities, 
will not be necessary. AMien all other attempts to have 
the parents meet with the teachers in a social hour fail, 
school exercises in which their children have a part, given 
at a convenient time, will command their presence and bring 
them into pleasant relations with the teachers. 

The Parent-Teacher Association. \\'hen parents be- 



382 Education and the General Welfare 

come aware of what the school is doing for their children in 
this way, a natural basis is established for a growing appre- 
ciation of the needs of the school by way of support from 
the home and the community. How an indifferent and re- 
bellious district may in such a way be transformed for the 
good of a city school is well illustrated by a story told in 
the reference given below.^ This is the natural origin of 
organizations such as the Parent-Teacher Associations, 
which are intended to bring about a common understanding 
of school aims and problems. 

Possible Influence of Such Organizations. The con- 
ferences and discussions at the meetings of these associations 
and their ultimate influence in the neighborhood, should lead 
to at least three important things: to an interest in child 
welfare, to a home solution of many problems of discipline 
before they appear in school, and to an appreciation of the 
home as a sort of laboratory source of school projects and 
problems and as a field for practice of what is learned at 
school. 

Every School Needs a Laboratory. The difificulties of 
enlarged responsibilities with a limited time program for 
their discharge is to be met by this new viewpoint and by a 
change of method. The school's new way to meet the 
problem of many studies is to organize them so that one 
may serve as a means to the knowledge of the other and 
to emphasize the practice of the common factor in all of 
them — orderly thinking. And furthermore, in the case 
of school children, thinking must be first done with concrete 
material. This must be somewhere accessible. In short, 

1 Patri : " A Schoolmaster of the Great City," The Macmillan Com- 
pany, New York, 1917. Chapters IV and V, pp. 84-153. 



Auxiliary Agencies 383 

every school needs a laboratory. The kindergarten has al- 
ways had it. The blocks, sticks, yarns, colors, etc., are all 
things to work with and get impressions from. The sand, 
clay, and paper, satisfy creative impulses. At the same time 
the child is given opportunities for actual practice in social 
behavior with others of the same class. The kindergarten 
has ways also to make the practices learned carry over into 
the home. Some of the play material used may come from 
the home. The kindergarten pictures in a small way the 
correlations between the home and the school that should 
obtain in all public schools. 

The traditional program of the elementary school, the 
high school, and to a certain extent the college, has, until 
recent years, been divorced from the concrete. Only in the 
more advanced classes and especially in the graduate school 
has the student been introduced to the microscope and ex- 
perimental apparatus and been allowed to work directly with 
the basic material of the science pursued. 

Between the kindergarten and the more advanced school 
work there is usually a gap of dreary formalism. And it is 
a significant fact that the educational critic judging by re- 
sults, usually makes this period so scant of concrete interest 
the target of his attacks. It is widely held that in this 
country the only educational institutions that have proved 
generally satisfactory are these two at their best : the kinder- 
garten and the graduate school. The new program demands 
that the traditional lack be made good by providing the more 
concrete material as a means of education in the grades 
where it has so long been neglected. 

Hence, the school must open its doors to the field and the 
v/oods and the home. We cannot bring the laboratory into 



384 Educatioii and the General Welfare 

the schoolhouse. It is too large. We must go out to it. 
And when we come to think that the child is in it every day 
under any circumstances, why not utilize the home and its 
surroundings as a laboratory for the school? Instead of 
having the pupil always stand before the teacher with hands 
folded and eyes to the ceiling trying to remember the num- 
ber tables so often repeated, why not repeat these processes 
with a great variety of material and learn numbers while 
we learn also about the things. Also, instead of reading 
the same words over and over again in the same book, why 
not practice reading these words in ever new settings in a 
variety of readable and interesting books. A stock of sup- 
plementary matter from the library read for pleasure or for 
something one wishes to find out, is the laboratory phase of 
reading. 

The Home as a Source of Projects. There is now a 
science of dish-washing, dusting, cleaning, and laundering 
as well as a chemistry and physics, and a science of cooking 
and an economics of buying and marketing. There is also a 
biology and hygiene in the care of infants. There is much 
waste of goods and life in American homes because these 
matters are not given intelligent thought. The school can 
connect with these interests and give superior drill in the 
three R's while it is doing so. 

Little Mothers' Leagues. About eighty of the larger 
cities of the country have organizations known as Little 
Mothers' Leagues. In one of the cities there were in 19 14, 
the first year the work was undertaken, eleven public and 
four parochial schools to take part in the movement. In 
three years in the same city 4,200 girls were enrolled in 28 
schools. 



Auxiliary Agencies 385 

The purpose of these organizations is to conserve the 
health and Hves of infants. Membership is Hmited to the 
girls of the seventh and eighth grades. The meetings are 
held in the schoolhouses and are conducted in orderly form. 
Instruction is given and demonstrations are made by a school 
nurse. The lessons include simple definitions of terms used ; 
home sanitation; care of the house, yard and alley; proper 
disposal of refuse matter; ventilation; disease carriers; the 
proper handling and care of the baby indoors and out of 
doors, including clothing, bathing, care at the time of erup- 
tion of teeth, the qualities of natural and artificial feeding, 
care of milk and its containers in the home, etc., etc. 

Care of offspring must be one of the fundamental aims 
of education. In this kind of work the school serves its 
own cause when it saves the health of future children by 
spreading knowledge of hygiene in their early care. In 
some cities there are child welfare bureaus where mothers 
are encouraged to bring their children of pre-school age for 
examination, and any diseases or defects discovered are ex- 
plained to these women in simple terms, and advice given, 
and in case of the very poor a free clinic is recommended. 
This advice is " followed up " by volunteer workers to see 
that it is carried out. Neglect of children at birth, lack of 
proper care, unsuitable food, bad housing, all contribute their 
share to a chronic condition of weakness, physical and men- 
tal, with which children eventually come to school, and 
measures then taken by school physicians to make them fit 
for their work may come several years too late. 

The National Children's Bureau. This work is in line with the 
activities of the National Bureau of Child Welfare. This bureau 
was established to promote the physical well-being of infants. 



386 Education and the General Welfare 

The national campaign carried out in 1918 aimed at saving at least 
100,000 of 300,000 children who die annually of preventable dis- 
eases. The first activity of the year was a test of children of pre- 
school age to ascertain whether they were up to the standards of 
weight and height for their ages. Millions of volunteer workers 
participated in the work, 7,000,000 record cards were issued of 
which over 2,000,000 have been tabulated. Many communities 
have engaged in a second test to note improvements. There were 
established one hundred and thirty-four children's health centers, 
to which mothers can go for expert advice concerning the best 
means of caring for their children. 

School Gardening. This is an example of an educa- 
tional agency which for many years was independent of the 
regular school organization. In the last few years it has 
grown in favor until it has become an integral part of school 
work in many cities and villages. It supplies attractive ma- 
terial for study and teaches a useful occupation. It has the 
desirable feature of giving occasion for the use of tools 
which are safe in the hands of the smallest school child. It 
can be pursued as a scientific and an economic project. 
Many a child welcomes the chance to engage in it as a means 
of earning some money. It is educational from the time 
of preparing the soil to the gathering of the crops, the mar- 
keting, and the settling of accounts. Besides, the work is 
carried on in the open air and sunlight and at a time when 
many boys and girls would be idle in the streets. 

The movement gained a tremendous impetus through the 
organization of the United States School Garden Army with 
its million and a half boys and girls enrolled in 1918 and 
directed by 25,000 or more teachers under the general di- 
rection of the Bureau of Education. The campaign for 
food conservation gave to each child engaged in the work a 



Auxiliary Agencies 387 

sense of aiding his country's cause and helping to control 
the fate of the people of other lands. 

Under intelligent guidance there will be much use in this 
work for the three R's, and with the national and world- 
wide significance attached to it, the lessons in geography and 
history will hereafter mean much more. 

School Savings Banks. When children learn how to 
earn money as in gardening, they should also be taught how 
to save. There is no other agency with a more definite aim 
than the school bank. It teaches thrift and something of 
the ways of practical banking, and without formal lessons. 
No other bank could serve this purpose in the same ef- 
fective way. Its place of business is in daily evidence and 
at an appointed time it receives deposits. The attention 
of the children is constantly drawn to the existence of the 
bank and by that fact they are constantly reminded of the 
policy of saving. Thrift stamps and war savings certifi- 
cates have been an added stimulus to saving among school 
children. Who can doubt but that all this outside experience 
will have a vital effect on classroom arithmetic, if the teacher 
knows how to utilize it? 

Civics Clubs. These are usually formed in the eighth 
grade or the years of the high school and are intended for 
practice in the usages of parliamentary bodies and for dis- 
cussions and debates relating to community improvement 
and civic betterment. In the larger cities a number of these 
clubs unite in a civic and vocational league or junior 
chamber of commerce in which the work done is given a 
large scope and wide outlook. The chamber of commerce 
supports the organization and cooperates with it. The de- 
clared purpose of the league in one of the cities is " to 



388 Education and the General Welfare 

study the civic and vocational life of the city by first-hand 
observation, to learn what opportunities the industrial life of 
the city offers to young people, to teach its members to think 
seriously and wisely concerning various occupations, to as- 
sist in preparing its members for an active and efficient place 
in these vocations, to connect more closely the work of the 
public schools with the life of the community, to teach its 
members to aid effectively in meeting the civic needs of the 
community, and to assist civic institutions in promoting the 
general welfare of the city." ^ 

The Scouts Organizations. The scout movement has 
been called " the most significant educational contribution 
of our time." ^ It combines with play and recreation all 
the educational interests described in the present chapter and 
many others besides, while it pursues its chief purpose of 
forming the character of youth. Its special province is the 
moral development of children of the teen-age. All that is 
taught and all that is done has a relation to the practical 
mastery of some line of useful work. Scouting is not lec- 
tures or talks by a master or teacher; it is more a system of 
action than of words, and this is the chief reason why it 
makes an effective appeal to children. It relates itself 
closely to the study of nature and experience with the forms 
of wild life; it is an open-air institution. 

The scouts organizations aim to cooperate with the home, 
the school, and the church, and membership in them is not 
denied to any creed. They appeal to instincts of child life 

1 Eighty-seventh Annual Report, Cincinnati Public Schools, 1917. 
p. 68. 

2 Russell : " Scouting Education," Teachers College Record, Jan., 
1917, pp. 1-13. 



Auxiliary Agencies 389 

that cannot be safely ignored in training. The simple uni- 
form gives the scout a visible distinction and it is a guaran- 
tee of v^orthy conduct. The badges and insignia satisfy the 
natural desire for personal decoration, and there are so many 
of them that they arouse the collecting instinct. There are 
badges of rank, emblems and colors, merit badges, patrol 
signs, honor medals, and service stripes. For every stage 
of advancement there is a visible reward. 

The Boy Scouts. According to the revised " oath," be- 
fore he becomes a scout, a boy must promise : On my honor 
I will do my best — 

1. To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the scout 
law. 

2. To help other people at all times. 

3. To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and 
morally straight. 

The laws he promises to obey are expressed in twelve 
short sentences. Without repeating words, they are : A 
scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, 
obedient, cheer fid, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. The 
motto of the scouts is : Be Prepared. The tests for ad- 
vancement in the three classes of scouts include tracking, 
compass reading, fire building, thrift as indicated by a sav- 
ings account, map reading, distance judging, administering 
first aid, camp cooking, signaling, describing plants, trees, 
birds, and wild animals, and training other boys. After 
passing all the requirements of the three classes a boy is 
eligible to qualify for various badges. These are awarded 
for knowledge and practical skill in agriculture, gardening, 
athletics, architecture, art, business, bird study, camping, 



390 Education and the General Welfare 

cooking, civics, archery, bee-keeping, marksmanship, per- 
sonal health, path-finding, life-saving, signaling, electrical 
work, dairying, firemanship, swimming, public health, and 
many other activities. 

That the training boy scouts receive has excellent results 
is shown by what they can do when called out for emergency 
service. In one city boy scouts were called out to act as 
traffic officers in the absence of the police. There was no 
question that " they knew just what to do and when to do 
it. They did not get excited neither did they become filled 
with self-importance. They took hold of a very complex 
situation in a masterly way and kept the traffic moving in 
accordance with the regulations." ^ Later they did a simi- 
lar service in guarding fire-boxes against lawless elements 
for a city fire department. In such work they were excused 
meanwhile from school because of the practical civics value 
of their service. 

Although the boy scouts were not organized to prepare 
for military service it is reported that the men in the Allied 
armies who had scout training gave proof of unusual effi- 
ciency. In Great Britain 20,000 of them were requisi- 
tioned for special non-military duties during the war. 

Girl Scouts. The Camp Fire Girls and Girl Scouts are 
similar organizations for girls. The latter is a parallel to 
the Boy Scouts. It was founded by Miss Agnes Baden- 
Powell, sister of General Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the 
founder of the Boy Scouts. Its motto is the same and the 
" promise " and the scout laws are nearly the same. The 
age when a girl may become a scout is 10, two years less 
than the age requirement in the boys' organization. 
1 Local news report. 



Auxiliary Agencies 391 

The qualifications for regular advancement in rank are 
to be able to tie useful knots, cook a simple dish, make a bed 
properly, make an invalid's bed, know what to do in case 
of fire, know what habits to acquire for health, work a but- 
ton-hole, do plain sewing, set the table properly for the 
three meals of the day, bathe and dress a child two years 
old or younger, pass an examination in first aid, swim fifty 
yards, and know the simple laws of sanitation and ventila- 
tion. She must know how to distinguish and name ten 
trees, ten wild animals, and ten wild birds. 

There are merit badges for knowing approved methods 
of resuscitation in cases of drowning, knowing how to teach 
a certain number of popular games, knowing the purposes 
of the Audubon Society, taking care of a baby for a specified 
time, keeping household accounts, knowing how to test milk, 
launder and press, use a rifle, play a musical instrument, 
turn in a fire-alarm, and for skill in gardening, domestic art, 
photography, and many other lines of work. 

The girl scout is enjoined to put duty before pleasure, 
safety or comfort. '/ Do a good turn to some one every 
day " is a practical precept. No reward is accepted for 
helpfulness. Modesty in dress and deportment is inculcated. 
'' Girl scouts are not loud and boisterous in order to draw 
attention to themselves " and they " do not allow desire for 
admiration of personal charms to rule their conduct." The 
girl scout is required to have a savings account, to learn to 
be a good housekeeper, avoid waste of every kind, and 
see that her clothing is cared for properly. She is enjoined 
*' not to shirk dif^culties or trouble but is taught to think her 
way through them smiling." 

We can give only the principles, the scout method of 



392 Education and the General Welfare 

teaching them is by exemplification in the child's own prac- 
tice. This seems better than to teach morals by dictated 
precepts or even by stories or moving pictures of moral 
conduct. Children under the legal age to work have too 
much time on their hands, which they do not know how to 
employ. This is especially true in small towns and villages. 
The scout organization and its activities would be a means 
of solving this problem. 

But the scout organization needs closer relations with the 
teachers and administrators of our schools. The call for 
scout masters is very urgent and there are none who are 
better fitted for the work than teachers. The work of a 
scout master requires ordinarily three hours a week outside 
of school hours. The work of no organization has greater 
educational significance nor larger opportunities for con- 
structive service than that of the scouts. 

The Social Center.^ The social center is first of all a 
place, and second an institution. All the agencies enumer- 
ated, of which the scout movement is the most comprehen- 
sive, are auxiliaries of the school. Although not all a part 
of the school organization, they all cooperate with the school 
in its broader educational aims. They represent no creed or 
party. All are at the same time community and school 
interests, and the schoolhouse is their local habitation. Here 
they are joined and coordinated, here they find expression 
and from this center their influence radiates. 

But now this place becomes an institution and broadens 
its scope. The schoolhouse now becomes the community 
capital and parliament house, the forum for public discus- 

^ Jackson : " A Community Center, What It Is and How to Organize 
It," Bulletin, 1918, No. 11, U. S. Bureau of Education. 



Auxiliary Agencies 393 

sions, for the consideration of questions that pertain to the 
welfare of the school and the community, the voting place 
where matters of local and political policy are decided. 
There may be exercises such as train in citizenship, like con- 
ducting a mock court, or a naturalization hearing ; there may 
be exhibits of the home making, household economics, and 
gardening courses; there may be public receptions to new 
citizens, celebrations of a patriotic character; meetings of 
various society groups like the parent-teacher association, 
associated charities, home and school leagues, ward or vil- 
lage improvement associations, etc., etc. 

There may also be educational conferences, exhibitions, 
lectures or talks, loan art exhibits, child welfare exhibits; 
there may be entertainments with choral singing, concerts, 
dialogues, playlets, impersonations, motion pictures, nights 
of all nations, readings, story-telling, tableaux, vaudeville 
stunts. 

There may be spelling, arithmetic, grammar, pronuncia- 
tion matches; contests in declamation, essay writing, or 
story-telling; there may be debates, which will combine in- 
terest in competition with discussion of questions of civic 
or other educational nature. Besides, there will be occa- 
sions of a purely social character such as banquets, parties, 
celebrations, folk-dances, etc. Gymnastic and athletic con- 
tests will be sure to enlist the interest and participation of 
all the children. 

The social center is a place where all the people of the 
neighborhood, rich or poor, old or young, can meet for 
mutual benefit and enjoyment. And since it is the common 
meeting place for all the people and since the expense is met 
by funds derived from public taxation, the use of the school 



394 Education and the General Welfare 

property must be for all on equal terms and not devoted to 
sectarian or partisan purpose. In this way the full value 
of the school plant will be realized and the interests of the 
community will be drawn together upon the common object 
of the school and all that supports it. In this way an inter- 
est in the building itself will be promoted, to make it fully 
adequate for school and community center purposes. 

The Unit of Democracy. Thus the dream of Jefferson 
comes true. It was his idea that the school community 
should be the ultimate unit of American democracy. In the 
words of Commissioner Claxton — '' The ultimate unit in 
every State, Territory, and possession of the United States 
is the school district. Every school district should therefore 
be a little democracy, and the schoolhouse should be the com- 
munity capitol." 

The School Needs the Social Center. The school 
needs the social center for the opportunities it affords the 
children for expression in one form or another. The na- 
tive impulse of communication craves an audience. The 
best possible audience is not the teacher but a gathering of 
neighbors and friends. Thus the interests of the school will 
become the interests of the community, and the problems 
of the community will engage the attention of the school. 
In this way as the pupils grow older they gradually pass in 
an easy transition from the school to their place as citizens.^ 

These matters often succeed better in the cities than in the 

1 See Calendar No. 335, Report No. 391, United States Senate, 2nd 
Session, 63rd Congress, for an address by Hon. Woodrow Wilson, 
Gov. of New Jersey, at Madison, Wisconsin, on " The Social Center : 
A Means of Common Understanding." And one by Mr. Edward J. 
Ward on " The Schoolhouse is the Civic and Social Center of the 
Community." 



Auxiliary Agencies 395 

rural districts. But the greater need is in the country- 
schools. Life there is usually too greatly lacking in those 
social advantages that lure people to cities. There is too 
Httle going on, as a rule, to engage the mental energies of 
the children with the result that neglect of use results in a 
weakness somewhat the same as if the powers were lacking 
in the first place. 

Child Welfare a Universal Interest. The movements 
mentioned in this chapter are a selected few of thousands 
that have been organized in recent years in all countries to 
promote child welfare in one phase or another from infancy 
to youth. There are not less than 7,000 organizations in 
this country engaged in activities that relate to the home 
and the school. Special efforts of the U. S. Department of 
the Interior with the cooperation of 75,000 qualified work- 
ers are directed toward conserving child life in the rural 
districts of 2,100 counties.^ Most of the States, through 
their boards of health, publish and distribute pamphlets on 
sanitation and the care of children. The universities, 
through their extension work in home economics, are en- 
gaged in the same service. Eight of them offer courses in 
scout leadership. Five states and 39 cities have established 
bureaus of child hygiene. Besides, private associations in 
many cities and villages carry on some form of child wel- 
fare work.^ 

The Promise of the Profession. This is the dominant 

1 Lombard: "Home Education." Bulletin, 1919, No. 3, U. S. Bureau 
of Education. 

- West : " Child Care." Care of Children Series, No. 3, Children's 
Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor. With bibliography including an 
extensive list of Government Publications on Child Welfare. 



39^ Education and the General Welfare 

interest of our time. Some one has called this the century 
of the child. The profession of teaching is renewing its 
life with a constantly enlarging horizon. Its body of 
knowledge is rapidly growing in extent and in scientific ac- 
curacy. To know the main phases of the whole school 
situation is now essential for intelligent citizenship. And 
the young teacher has a right to feel that now more than 
ever before in the world's history the work of the school 
with all that concerns it is rich in the possibilities of cultural 
growth and worthy of the devotion of a life-time of service. 



APPENDIX 
Standardizing Requirements 

State control of education has given rise to the need of 
standards. Some of the states define by statute the prov- 
ince of each type of school and make out a list of require- 
ments that must be met by local boards in order to deter- 
mine to what extent, if at all, the schools may share in the 
annual state appropriation. 

The Kindergarten. This has been recognized for many 
years as a part of city school systems, but has not been the 
subject of state school legislation until a few years ago. 
Now it is everywhere regarded as an effective educational 
instrument both as it affects the children themselves and for 
its influence upon the homes of the children. In several of 
the states kindergartens must now be established on petition 
of a specified number of parents. Although it came orig- 
inally from abroad, it has developed a practice that ac- 
knowledges no foreign inspiration. It has had so marked 
an influence in the methods used in the regular school grades 
that it is now considered desirable that those preparing to 
teach in the grades above it should study the methods of 
the kindergarten. 

The kindergartner is not supposed to be a teacher in the 
ordinary sense of the term. She takes rather her place 
among the children of her circle, is in full sympathy with 
child nature, and with an adequate repertoire of dances, 

397 



398 Appendix 

songs, stories, games, and motives for constructive plays 
in sand, clay, wood, and paper, she brings about situations 
that call forth the spontaneous activities of the children. 
Incidentally the child develops physically and socially, learns 
good manners and gains ideals of behavior, and acquires in- 
formation and a certain degree of skill of definite value in 
the first grade of the elementary school to which he is next 
admitted. 

Merging the Kindergarten and the Elementary 
School. It is believed that more of the free spirit of the 
kindergarten should be introduced in the grades, particularly 
in the lower ones. Some of the states have revised their 
statutes so as to provide for kindergartens as a part of the 
common school course. Many administrators believe that 
this can best be done by merging the two organizations. In 
some places this change has already been made, the name 
kindergarten having disappeared, while its spirit is expected 
to remain. 

What Is an Elementary School? Beginning at the age 
of six the child enters the first grade of the elementary 
school and continues under the traditional plan for eight 
years. An elementary school has been defined by statute as 
" one in which instruction and training are given in spelling, 
reading, writing, arithmetic, English language, English 
grammar and composition, geography, history of the United 
States including civil government, physiology, and hygiene. 
Nothing herein shall abridge the power of boards of educa- 
tion to cause instruction and training to be given in vocal 
music, drawing, elementary algebra, the elements of agri- 
culture, and other branches which they deem advisable for 
the best interests of the schools under their charge." 



Appendix 399 

Classes of Elementary Schools. In certain states where 
standards are required as a condition for state support, ele- 
mentary schools are divided into classes. In Ohio the fol- 
lowing are the minimum standard requirements for a first- 
grade one-room school : 

1. Clean buildings and yard 

2. Building in good repair 

3. Separate screened privies or inside toilets 

4. Maps of Ohio and the United States 

5. Library of not less than fifty volumes 

6. 100 square feet of slate or composition blackboard. The 
lower margin of not less than twelve lineal feet of which board 
shall be within two feet of the floor. 

7. A system of heating with ventilation — minimum a jacketed 
stove. 

8. Buildings hereafter constructed to have in connection with 
them not less than one acre of land for organized play. 

9. Teacher with at least a three-year certificate. 

10. Agricultural apparatus to the value of $15. 

These are the minimum standards that have to be main- 
tained or the school will not receive its annual state ap- 
propriation. A one-room school of the second grade is re- 
quired to fullfil the first three conditions only. 

Graded Schools. In country villages where the number 
of pupils is too large for one teacher or room, the elementary 
school is divided between two or m.ore teachers each taking 
in charge usually several grades classified according to age 
and advancement of pupils. This is called a Graded School. 

Consolidated Schools. The consolidated school is a cen- 
tralized school (elementary or high school) which two or 
more districts combine to establish and maintain. When the 
attendance in a rural district with a depleted population runs 



400 Appendix 

low and especially if there are two or more such districts 
in the same territory the expense per pupil of maintaining 
the school comes high even with a cheap and unsatisfactory 
equipment. When in Ohio the average daily attendance of 
any school for the preceding year has been below ten, such 
a school shall be suspended and the board of education shall 
provide for the conveyance of pupils attending such school 
to a public school in another district. This condition has 
also given rise to the demand that several weak districts 
abandon their several schoolhouses and combine into one 
consolidated or central school where, with usually no greater 
expense, the number of pupils will justify a better equip- 
ment and better paid teachers. In many of the states this 
type of school is especially favored with appropriations but 
it must come up to certain standards. In Ohio, the mini- 
mum requirements are the same as i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of the 
rural one-room school of the first class; with additional re- 
quirements for a first grade and a second grade consolidated 
school as follows : 

1. Library of not less than 150 — second grade consolidated, 100 
volumes. 

2. A case of not less than six maps, including map of Ohio — 
same for both grades. 

3. Buildings hereafter constructed to have at least three acres of 
land in connection with each school, one for agricultural and school 
garden purposes — second grade consolidated, two acres. 

4. Three rooms and three teachers or more on full time, one 
teacher to have at least a three-year certificate — two rooms and 
two teachers in second grade. 

5. Agricultural and domestic science apparatus to the value of at 
least one hundred dollars — for second grade, agricultural appa- 
ratus to the value of at least twenty-five dollars. 



Appendix 401 

6. Two teachers to be employed for ten months each, one teach- 
ing agriculture during the school term and to supervise agriculture 
during part of the vacation. The other to teach domestic science 
at the same periods of time — second grade, one teacher to be 
employed either for agriculture or domestic science or both. 

According to Ohio law — "After September ist, 19 15, 
the holder of a certificate of graduation from any one-room 
rural school of the first grade or of any consolidated rural 
school which has been recognized shall be entitled to admis- 
sion to any high school without examination. Graduates 
of any elementary school shall be admitted to any high 
school without examination on the certificate of the district 
superintendent." 

What Is a High School? The Ohio statute defines a 
high school as " One of higher grade than an elementary 
school, in which instruction and training are given in ap- 
proved courses in the history of the United States and other 
countries; composition, rhetoric, English and American lit- 
erature; algebra and geometry; natural science, political or 
mental science, ancient or modern foreign languages, or 
both; commercial and industrial branches; or such of the 
branches named as the length of its curriculum makes pos- 
sible." 

High schools are classified in many states. Usually there 
are three grades. In Ohio : 

First — not less than 4 years of 32 weeks and not less than 16 
courses 

Second — not less than 3 years of 32 weeks each and not less 
than 12 courses 

Third — not less than 2 years of 28 weeks and not less than 8 
courses 



402 Appendix 

(A course of study has been defined as consisting of not less 
than four recitations per week throughout the school year.) 

With respect to graduation from high school, the statute 
says : '' After September ist, 19 15, the holder of a diploma 
from a first grade high school shall be entitled to admission 
without examination to the academic department of any 
college or university which is supported wholly or in part 
by the state." 

All institutions of high school rank whether public or 
private go under the name of secondary schools. They fol- 
low the elementary schools and have generally in times past 
functioned as preparatory to institutions of collegiate grade. 
The college is vaguely defined as " an institution of a more 
advanced type than the high school, in which such studies 
as science, mathematics, and the languages are further 
studied with higher ideals of breadth and thoroughness.'' 
And this kind of school, the goal of the high school, is pre- 
paratory to graduate work in the university. Finally, a 
university is an aggregation of colleges under one and the 
same management. 

Time Units. The school year in the different states is 
of varying length. In the larger cities it consists of ten 
school months. As is well known, the school month con- 
sists of twenty days, the school week of five days, and the 
school day of six full hours or less. With the scope of the 
course fixed, a longer day or a longer week or a longer 
school year or all of these would reduce the whole number 
of years a child would be required to spend in school. 

The years of school life and the corresponding age of the 
pupil in years, under ordinary conditions, are as follows : 



Appendix 403 









School life 


Age of 








in years 


pupil 


Graduate School 






19 
18 

17 


24 

23 

22 


College 






16 
15 

13 


21 
20 
19 

18 








12 


17 


Senior 


High 


School 


II 


16 


High School 






10 


15 








9 


14 


Junior 


High 


School 


8 

7 


13 
12 






6 


II 








5 


10 








4 


9 


Elementary School 


I 




3 
2 

I 


8 

7 

6 (bet. 6 & 7) 



If the school day were increased to seven hours from six, 
the gain in six years would be one year; if increased to 
eight, the gain would be two years in six. In a six instead 
of a five day week, a six years' course could be finished in 
five and a twelve years' course in ten years. In 240 instead 
of 200 days per year, a twelve years' course could be finished 
in ten years. 

" In general, it is believed that wherever school boards can find 
the means, the present^ emergency is an opportune time for re- 

1 Teachers' Leaflet, No. 3, April, 1918, Government Policies Involv- 



404 Appendix 

adjusting the schools on an all-year-round basis, with a school of 
48 weeks, divided into four quarters of twelve weeks each. The 
schools would then be in continuous operation, but individual 
teachers and pupils would have the option of taking one quarter 
off at prearranged periods for needed change.'' 

Under the traditional system a pupil may complete the 
elementary course in eight years, the high school course in 
four, the college in four, and the professional or graduate 
school in three. The new arrangement plans to provide 
for the completion of th elementary course at the end of 
the sixth school year and the high school in six more or it 
divides the following six years into periods of three years 
each. In a few states private institutions whose work is 
partly in the high school and partly in the college field have 
been standardized as Junior colleges, the last two years being 
equivalent to the first two of college. If all these newer di- 
visions of the whole time of school life are considered, a 
student can finish a general academic course at the end of 
the sixth, ninth, twelfth, fourteenth, or sixteenth year and 
leave school or remain for further work of a general charac- 
ter or by a differentiated course prepare for a life calling. 

Differentiation of Courses. Every one who is at all 
conversant with school work knows at least in a general 
way what is done in the first six grades of the elementary 
school. The character of the work and aims is about the 
same everywhere. Here we expect the pupil to learn to 
write a legible hand, to speak and write in good English, 
to read with such habituation to the process that it may be 
done rapidly and with pleasure, to perform the fundamental 

ing the Schools in War Time, p. 3, Dept. of the Interior, Washington, 
D. C. 



Appendix 405 

operations of arithmetic with facility and accuracy in ap- 
plication to practical life needs, and to gain ideals in the en- 
joyment of leisure. 

The differentiation comes after the sixth year or after 
the eighth year in the elementary school. In small high 
schools there will naturally be few courses to choose from. 
A large high school will have an Intermediate School, or 
Junior High School, after the sixth year, covering the work 
in three years and then the High School proper with dif- 
ferent courses named, perhaps, as follows: Literary, Sci- 
entific, Domestic Science and Art, Business, Agriculture, 
Trade. 

In one of the large high schools of the Middle West ^ 
there is possible after the eighth grade a choice among ten 
four-year courses. They are classified as academic and 
technical : 

Academic Courses Technical Courses 

General Agricultural 

Classical Art 

Domestic Science Commercial 

Manual Training Music 

Technical Cooperative (Boys) 
Technical Cooperative (Girls) 

The art course is taken in part at the local art academy. 
The music course is taken in part in music schools outside. 
The cooperative courses are taken on the cooperative plan 
of alternate two weeks in school and in shop. The Classical 
and other Academic Courses are preparatory for higher in- 
stitutions. 

After the age of fourteen is reached a vocational course of 
1 Hughes High School, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



4o6 Appendix 

one or more years is available through the provisions of the 
Smith-Hughes Act, or Vocational Education Law. Such 
courses may be in machine shop, printing, carpentry, home 
economics, agriculture, sheet metal working, building con- 
struction, automobile repair and construction, drawing and 
design, etc. Every one of the forty-eight states has ac- 
cepted the proposal of the law, and the state board of voca- 
tional education of each in cooperation with the national 
board is making out vocational courses for pupils above the 
age of fourteen and for the training of teachers for this 
work. 

Standard Schools. State school laws do not cover all 
the details of school organization. This is left to a large 
extent to the local administration. The state lays down the 
minimal requirements. Administrators see that these are 
met and extended. Hence in some states the board of ad- 
ministration publishes desirable standards that should be 
reached.^ 

Illinois publishes ^ a list of the requirements for one- 
room schools. If, upon inspection by a member of the state 
department, these have been met a diploma will be awarded 
to the school and a plate will be placed above the door on 
the outside. Standard School. If local school officers wish 
to go higher than the essentials of a good one-room school 
as represented by the name a Standard School, they can as- 
pire to the distinction of having a name plate above the 
door indicating a Superior School. In this case, if after 

1 Desirable Physical Standards of a Good School, Dept. of Pub. In- 
struction, Trenton, N. J. 

2 The One-room and Consolidated Country School of 111., Circular 
No. 124, Sixth Edition, 1917. 



Appendix 407 

inspection the school is found to merit the distinction, a 
diploma is awarded on a special occasion in the presence of 
invited guests, including the state superintendent himself. 

The same state publishes also a list of Requirements for 
a Standard Village or City Elementary School in circular 
form for general distribution. This list includes besides 
physical conditions and equipment an extensive outline of 
the requirements in regard to supervision, teaching and dis- 
cipline, qualification of teachers, professional growth, 
teachers' meetings, parent-teacher associations, courses of 
study, salary of teachers, length of term, janitor service, 
board meetings, enrollment not fewer than 15 and not more 
than 45 per teacher, and the standard of work done. A 
representative of the state office makes the inspection. If 
the requirements are met, a diploma is awarded. 

Score Cards. This is a plan of judging the school con- 
ditions particularly as related to the buildings and equip- 
ment. The score card had its origin in agricultural colleges, 
in judging the points of horses and other live stock. This 
plan has been followed in judging schools by making out a 
list of desired conditions. These are weighted, some bring- 
ing more points to the final score than others. 

The following is the Montana Score Card: 



4o8 Appendix 



STANDARD OR SUPERIOR SCHOOL 
RATING CARD ^ 

FOR 

MONTANA RURAL SCHOOLS 

1919 

To Be Filled Out and Reported by County Superin- 
tendent After Visit and Inspection. 

County 

Visited 19. . Reported 19. . 

Name of School Dist. No 

Rating Standard or Superior 

Teacher or Principal 

Address 

School Clerk 

Address 

County Superintendent. 

Approved by Rural Inspector. 

If visited by Inspector, date 

Date name plate was sent 

To whom sent 



1 Courtesy of State Department of Public Instruction, Helena, Mon- 
tana. 



Appendix 



409 



STANDARD OR SUPERIOR SCHOOL RATING CARD. 



I. 



SCHOOL YARD — 5 Points. 



Perfect 

1. Flag, 4' X 6', flying, weather permitting 5 

2. Grounds well fenced. Good walks from road 

to front entrance; from building to out- 
buildings 1.5 

3. Playground adequate and kept in good condi- 

tion 5 

4. Sanitary screened toilets, or indoor toilets, se- 

cluded, provided with indoor latch, toilet 
paper, urinals for boys and kept clean and 
free from marks 2.5 

II. 
SCHOOL BUILDINGS— 10 Points. 

1. Floor, air, and window space, location of 

windows and vestibule as required by law 1.5 

2. Standard heating and ventilating system . . 1.5 

3. Lighted cloak rooms with adequate hooks; 

warm closet or shelves for dinner buckets i 

4. All windows fitted with good rolling shades .5 

5. Paint or finish outside and inside in good 

condition. Plastered walls and ceilings 
kalsomined with a light tint I 

6. Entire interior of building cleaned at least 

once in three months. After social func- 
tions or community affairs building and 
equipment left as found 2 

7. Buildings and equipment kept in repair i 

8. Extra rooms — closet or storeroom, library 

alcove, fuel room (or convenient shed) . . 1.5 



Allowed by 
Co. Supt. or 
Rural Insp. 



4IO Appendix 



III. 

SCHOOL EQUIPMENT — 21 Points. 

1. Study chairs or single patent desks of at least 

three sizes fastened to strips or the floor i 

2. Children seated in proper sized seats and no 

child unable to reach the floor with his feet i 

3. At least twenty linear feet of good black- 

board, four feet wide, set from 26" to 30" 
from the floor, and fitted with sanitary 
chalk troughs I 

4. At least two standard framed pictures i 

5. Supply of at least four types of primary ma- 

terials, as : Word and sentence cards ; 
domino cards, toy money, etc.; folding and 
cutting papers, blunt scissors, paste ; rags, 
rafiia, corn husks, yarn, warp, weaving 
frame ; clay, sand ; drawing papers, pencils, 
water colors 1.5 

6. At least two sets of supplementary readers 

for lower grades or classes; all basal texts I 

7. Library books purchased early in school year : 

list approved by County Superintendent be- 
fore purchase is made I 

8. Good library, bookcases with books kept in 

place properly labeled, and library rules 
followed. Bulletin boards provided 1.5 

9. An unabridged dictionary in good condition 

with stand or shelf i 

10. Good map of Montana; at least six other 

good maps in case ; suspended globe ; 
weights and measures ; good supply of 
bulletins and educative free materials .... 2 

11. Pure water supply; covered water cooler with 

spigot and individual or paper drinking 
cups, or sanitary bubbler 2 

12. Sanitary towels, wash basin, floor brush, 

sweeping compound, shoe scrapers, good 
pencil sharpener 1.5 



Appendix 411 



Building and equipment clean and orderly . . i 

Musical instrument; community song books i 

Playground equipment, at least three features i 

Household Arts equipment for hot lunch; 

Manual Training equipment — tools, bench, 

lumber ; Agricultural equipment — seed 

testers, containers, collections of specimens 

and products, bulletins 1.5 

Good convenient boarding place or teacherage 
provided for teacher i 



IV. 

THE TEACHER — 38 Points. 

1. At least one year of professional training . . 3 

2. First or higher grade certificate granted be- 

fore opening of school 2 

3. At least two books from Teacher's Reading 

Course read within a year and reports 
written i 

4. At least one educational journal used i 

5. Daily program with seat work indicated, 

posted and followed 1.5 

6. Classes combined and alternated according 

to plan in latest State Manual; 24 or 
fewer classes daily 1.5 

7. Working knowledge of State Course of 

Study, and used as required by law 2 

8. As much time and attention given to lower as 

upper grades i 

Daily preparation of work for both study and 

recitation period 3 

All children profitably employed during study 

periods 2 

Good order maintained at all times i 

Neatness of appearance and of work ; well 

modulated voice i 

Good work in agriculture, household arts, in- 
dustrial arts and music 2 



412 Appendix 

14. Efficiency of the teaching as determined 

by motivation of class and seat work; 
ability to judge relative values by pupils; 
ability to organize data shown by pupils; 
development of initiative in pupils; ability 
to apply knowledge shown by pupils 5 

15. Supervised play i 

16. Live in the community seven days in the week i 

17. Teacher retained entire school year 5 

18. Teacher retained for second year 1.5 

19. All homes of pupils visited; participation 

in community activities i 

20. Unquestioned patriotism and possession of 

high moral standards 2 

21. Neatness, accuracy and fullness of all records 

and reports i 

22. Responsive attitude toward supervision 3 

V. 

PUPILS — 9 Points. 

1. All children of school age, who have not 

finished the eighth grade, in regular attend- 
ance, unless excused for good cause 2 

2. Regularity and punctuality of attendance of 

all pupils regularly enrolled 2 

3. Neatness in care of books and desks ; train- 

ing in thrift and good citizenship 2 

4. Cleanliness and neatness in personal appear- 

ance; respectful bearing of pupils 1.5 

5. Loyalty, patriotism, obedience, industry, 

courtesy and other virtues established in 
children 1.5 

VI. 

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES — 17 Points. 

I. Regular community meetings ; meetings of 

social organizations having educative value 1.5 



Appendix 413 

2. School represented in Boys' and Girls' club 

work at county or state fair 1.5 

3. Play festival, field meet, school or community 

fair, or county spelling or arithmetic con- 
tests 1.5 

4. Special day program, an outgrowth of regular 

school work 1.5 

5. School visited by all trustees and at least 

three other patrons 2 

6* Strong evidences of active cooperation of 

patrons and fine community spirit 5 

7. Commendable improvements by local initiative 

not listed above i 

8. Session of not less than 170 days in year .... 3 

THE RATING CARD. 

PURPOSE: To improve every county and village school through 
better buildings, better equipment, better teaching, and finer com- 
munity cooperation, name plates are issued by the State Superin- 
tendent to all schools which receive satisfactory standings on this 
rating card. The aim is to require only those things necessary to a 
good school. Essentials, rather than minor details, will determine the 
matter, but the school must be a good one. 

PLAN : The county superintendent should furnish every teacher, 
school clerk, and school trustee in her county with a copy of the 
rating card at the opening of each school year. The teacher should 
score with a pencil each point on the card (except those pertain- 
ing to the teacher) previous to the county superintendent's visit, and 
submit the same to her at that time. The county superintendent 
should then check up the list and complete the scoring. All schools 
are to be rated, even though they are not ready for standardization. 
To all schools whose rating card shows a total score of 70 or more 
points, as rated by the county superintendent, with the assistance of 
the teacher, and when approved by the State Inspector of Rural 
Schools, one of two name plates will be awarded by the State Superin- 
tendent. The rating of the several rooms in consolidated and village 
schools will be averaged in determining the total score of these 
schools. 
STANDARD SCHOOL : A name plate bearing the words " Standard 



414 Appendix 

School" will be awarded to these schools scoring between 70 and 
89 on the rating card. To become a standard school all the forces in 
the community should work together. The school trustees, the 
teacher, the pupils, and the patrons of the school have each a share 
in the work of improving the school. Every community that is found 
to be actively engaged in building a good school deserves honorable 
mention, even though the name-plate cannot be obtained at the time. 
SUPERIOR SCHOOL: There is a laudable desire on the part of 
some school officers to make their school as nearly perfect as pos- 
sible. To encourage this a name-plate bearing the words " Superior 
School " will be awarded to schools rating 90 or above on the rating 
card. A superior school is one that is taught by a teacher of superior 
qualifications and with the highest efficiency, in a house that is as nearly 
perfect in all the essentials as possible and furnished with everything 
needed. The community must show the interest that the claim of such 
a school implies. 

RETAINING THE NAME PLATE: Schools are standardized for 
an indefinite period of time. The approved lists of all Standard or 
Superior schools are kept on file in the office of the State Superintend- 
ent. If it is found, upon later inspection by the county superintendent, 
or State Inspector of Rural Schools, that a school no longer has the 
required score for standardization, conditions must be improved with- 
out delay, or the name-plate will be removed. Every school should 
try not only to secure or retain the name-plate, but also to build a 
finer and better school from year to year. 

Score Card for City Buildings.^ A score card for city 
buildings was developed as a part of the advanced work 
in educational administration in Teachers College, Co- 
lumbia University, New York. Its basis for scoring is a 
thousand points. It sets high standards such as one might 
expect in school buildings of the larger American cities. 
The Montana card is evidently intended to stimulate im- 
provements particularly in the rural one-room schools, 
which seem to need encouragement in all the states. 

■^ Strayer : " Score Card for City School Buildings," Teachers Col- 
lege, Columbia University, 1916, 11 pp. 



Appendix 415 

With these score cards pointing the way, others may be 
arranged to suit local conditions in any state or city. That 
it may serve in a similar way, the following score card has 
been arranged in view of standards set in the preceding 
chapters, and particularly for schools in small cities, villages, 
and consolidated districts. The basis for scoring is five 
hundred points. 

Score Card for Schools in Small Cities, Villages, and 
Consolidated Districts 

I 

BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS 

1. Environment — moral, physical, esthetic 10 

2. Size of grounds, whole plot not less than 200 sq. ft. per 

child 5 

3. Condition of grounds, trees, flowers, grass, concrete walks, 

playground lo 

4. School garden 10 

5. Good walls and ceilings, properly tinted; shades; no leaks 

in roof 5 

6. Good floors, scrubbed at least once a month; sweeping 

compound used 10 

7. Floor space 20 sq. ft.; air space 250 cu. ft. to 300 cu. ft. 

per child 10 

8. Built-in cupboards and lockers for materials used in pri- 

mary work 5 

9. Cloakrooms — ample, separate for boys and girls, each 

with one entrance only and that from schoolroom side . . 7 

10. Finish inside and outside 5 

11. Ventilation satisfactory 10 

12. Windows — unbroken, clean, one fifth of floor space, left 

and rear 10 

13. Artificial lighting, classrooms (gas — one 3-foot burner 

per 12 sq. ft.; electric light — one candle power per 
2 sq. ft.) 5 



41 6 Appendix 

14. Toilet rooms properly located, ample, clean, and well ven- 

tilated 20 

15. Assembly hall, or auditorium, with capacity for at least 

half the number of pupils accommodated in the class- 
rooms 15 

16. Gymnasium, at least a room 40x60 with a height of at 

least 15 feet 10 

17. Laboratory, equipped for at least one science, with ap- 

paratus to the value of $250 20 

II 

EQUIPMENT 

1. Desks, single, adjustable — movable tables and chairs for 

first three grades 10 

2. Teacher's desk and chair 2 

3. Primary work equipment 8 

4. Library, not less than 300 volumes of standard literature 

and science, a standard cyclopedia, and in each room 
above the fifth grade an unabridged dictionary 15 

5. Full set of maps; also globes; weights and measures; 

scales for weighing 10 

6. Blackboard, slate or composition, not less than 100 sq. ft., 

of proper height, fitted with chalk troughs; dustless 
crayon 5 

7. Good water from drinking fountains, one at least to 6,000 

sq. ft. of floor space 10 

8. Sinks, lavatories, sanitary towels 10 

9. Fire prevention — fire drills; standard chemical fire extin- 

guishers, one to 2,000 sq. ft. of floor space ; trip fire 
gongs; standpipe and iy2 inch hose in basement to reach 

any part of the building 15 

10. Equipment for manual training and home economics 15 

11. Free textbooks 5 

12. United States flag and flag staff 5 

13. Playground equipment 10 



Appendix 417 

III 

THE SCHOOL 

1. Medical inspection, including school nurse 20 

2. Attendance, averaging not less than 90 per cent of the 

school enrollment 20 

3. One teacher to every 30 or fewer pupils enrolled 10 

4. High School teachers, at least college graduates; other 

teachers below high school at least two-year Normal 
course after high school graduation 20 

5. School visited by all the members of the board 10 

6. Teachers retained second year or longer 8 

7. Popular athletic games for boys and girls 10 

8. School savings bank 10 

9. School year not less than 36 weeks 10 

ID. Passing on to higher institutions; 60 per cent from the 

grades and 20 per cent from the high school 15 

IV 

SCHOOL — HOME — COMMUNITY 

1. School represented in garden, corn, potato, pig, poultry, 

or other clubs 20 

2. School exhibits 15 

3. Civics or literary club, eighth grade and above 15 

4. Community social gathering, with program prepared wholly 

or in part by the students, occurring once a month 15 

5. Home project work 15 

Total points 500 

Note. — Of those who in one way or another gave assistance in 
working out the above, special mention should be made of Mr. F. O. 
Horton, a graduate student in education in the University of Cincinnati. 



SELECTED REFERENCES 

CHAPTER I 

Abbott, G. The Immigrant and the Community. New York, 

1917. 303 P- 
Abbott, L. America in the Making. New Haven, 191 1. 233 p. 
Bloomfield. Readings in Vocational Guidance. New York, 191 5. 

723 P- 

Dewey. Democracy and Education. New York, 19 16. 434 p. 

Foerster and Pierson, eds. American Ideals. New York, 1917. 
326 p. 

Hill, D. J. Americanism, what it is. New York, 1916. 280 p. 

Hill. The Teaching of Civics. New York, 1914. 145 p. 

Lapp and Mote. Learning to Earn. Indianapolis, 191 5. 421 p. 

Lutz. Wage Earning and Education. Cleveland, 1916. 208 p. 

Mahoney and Herlihy. First Steps in Americanization. New 
York, 1918. 142 p. 

McCarthy. Where garments and Americans are Made ; story of 
system of factory education for Americanization of foreign- 
ers. New York, 1917. 57 p. 

Miller. The School and the Immigrant. Cleveland, 1916. 102 p. 

Patriotism. A Reading List. New York Public Library, 19 17. 

Schouler. Ideals of the Republic. Boston, 1908. 304 p. 

Senger. The American House. The Survey, Vol. XLI, No. 22, 
Mar. I, 1919. Pp. 788-790. 

Spencer. Education. New York, 1900. 301 p. 

United States Bureau of Naturalization. The Work of the public 
schools with the Bureau of Naturalization in the preparation 
for citizenship responsibilities of the candidate for naturali- 
zation. Washington, D. C., 1917. 50 p. 

United States Chamber of Commerce. Governmental Activities 
for Americanization. Washington, 1917. Bulletin XIV, 
Immigration Committee. 4 p. 

418 



Selected References 419 

Willoughby. Rights and Duties of American Citizenship. New 
York, 1898. 336 p. 



CHAPTER II 

Andrews. The Land Grant of 1862 and the Land-Grant Colleges. 

Bulletin, 1918, No. 13, U. S. Bureau of Education. 
Bard. The City School District. New York, 1909. 118 p. 

Bibliography. 
Cubberley. School Organization and Administration. New York, 

1916. 340 p. Chapter XIII, The Financial Problem. Pp. 

315-332. 
Cubberley and Elliot. State and County School Administration. 

Source Book. New York, 1915. y2y p. Chapters I, II, III. 
Ohio School Laws, 19 15. 478 p. Pp. 150-183. 
Lapp. Federal grants in Aid. Explanation of the Morrill Act of 

1890, the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, and the Smith-Hughes 

Bill. American Pol. Sci, Review, Nov., 1916. 



CHAPTER III 

Cubberley and Elliott. State and County School Administration. 
Source Book. Chapter XVII and XVIIL 

Clark. Financing the Public Schools. Cleveland, 191 5. 133 p. 

Comparative Study of the public school systems in Alabama and 
other typical states; and an exhibition of educational condi- 
tions in the 67 counties of Alabama. Montgomery, Ala., 19 16. 
Bulletin 55. 32 p. 

Hood. Digest of State Laws Relating to Public Education in 
force Jan. i, 1915. Bulletin 1915, No. 47. U. S. Bureau of 
Education. 985 p. 

Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 
York, 1918. 333 p. Chapter IV. Investing Public Money 
in a New Generation. Pp. 46-62. 

MacDowell. State vs. Local Control of Elementary Education. 
Bulletin 19 5, No. 22, U. S. Bureau of Education. 83 p. 



420 Selected References 

CHAPTER IV 

Bowen. Safeguards for City Youth at Work and at Play. New 

York, 1914. 241 p. 
Breckenridge, ed. The Child in the City. Chicago, 1912. 502 p. 
Clopper. Child Labor in the City Streets. New York, 1912. 

280 p. Bibliography. 
Davis. Street-Land, its little people and big problems. Boston, 

1915. 291 p. 
Fiske. The Meaning of Infancy. Boston, 1909. 43 p. 
Hunter. Poverty. New York, 1905. 382 p. 
Kellor. Out of Work, a study of unemployment. New York, 

1915- 569 p. Chapter III. Children and the Labor Market. 

Pp. 58-110. 
Spargo. The Bitter Cry of the Children. New York, 1906. 
Stimson. The Massachusetts Home-Project Plan of Vocational 

Agricultural Education. Bulletin, 1914, No. 8. U. S. Bureau 

of Education. 104 p. Bibliography. Pp. 75-94. 
Van Vorst. The Cry of the Children. New York, 1908. 



CHAPTER V 

Abbott and Breckenridge. Truancy and Non-Attendance in the 
Chicago Schools. University of Chicago Press, 1917. 465 p. 

The Delinquent Child and the Home, a study of the de- 
linquent wards of the juvenile court of Chicago. New York, 

1917. 355 P- 

Ayres. Child Accounting in the Public Schools. Cleveland, 
1915. 68 p. 

Carstens. Public Pensions to Widows with Children. New York, 
1913. R. S. Foundation. 36 p. 

Deffenbaugh, Hand, and Others. Compulsory Attendance Laws in 
United States; The Need of Compulsory Education in 
the South, Laws of Ohio and Massachusetts Relating to Com- 
pulsory Attendance and Child Labor. Bibliography. Bulle- 
tin, 1914, No. 2. U. S. Bureau of Education. 



Selected References 421 

Devine. Pensions for Mothers. The Survey, Vol. XXX. No. 

14, July 5» 1913- 
Taylor, ed. Child Labor, Education and Mothers' Pension Laws 

in Brief. New York, 1917. 84 p. 



CHAPTER VI 

Ayres. Constant and Variable Occupations and their bearing on 
problems of vocational education. New York. Russell Sage 
Foundation, 1914. 11 p. 

Some conditions affecting problems of industrial educa- 
tion in 78 American school systems. New York. Russell 
Sage Foundation, 1914. 22 p. 

Bloomfield. The School and the Start in Life; study of the rela- 
tion between school and employment in England, Scotland, 
and Germany, Washington, D. C, 1914. 149 p. 

Breese. Vocational Guidance. Unpopular Review, Vol. V, pp. 
343-355- Oct.-Dec, 1915. 

Brewer. The Vocational Guidance Movement. New York, 1918. 

Bryner. The Garment Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 153 p. 

Choosing an Occupation, a list of books and references on voca- 
tional choice, guidance and training in the Brooklyn Public 
Library. Brooklyn, 1913. 63 p. 

Dean. The Worker and the State. New York, 1912. 355 p. 
Bibliography. Pp. 345-355- 

Ellis. The Money Value of Education. Bulletin, 1917. No. 22. 
U. S. Bureau of Education. 

Fleming. Railroad and Street Transportation. Cleveland, 1916. 
76 p. 

Hedges. Wage Worth of School Training. Columbia University, 
New York. Contribution to Education. Teachers' College 
Series. 1915. 173 p. 

Laselle and Wiley. Vocations for Girls. New York, 1913. 

Lutz. The Metal Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 129 p. 

McKeever. The Industrial Training of the Boy. New York, 
1914. 72 p. Bibliography. 



422 Selected References 

O'Leary. Department Store Occupations. Cleveland, 1916. 

127 p. 
Parsons. Choosing a Vocation. New York, 1909. 165 p. 
Puffer. Vocational Guidance, The Teacher as a Counselor. 

New York, 19 13. 306 p. 
Ryan. Vocational Guidance and the Public Schools, Bulletin, 

1918. No. 24. U. S. Bureau of Education. Bibliography. 

Pp. 102-131. 
Schneider. Education for Industrial Workers. New York, 1915. 

98 p. 
Shaw. The Building Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 95 p. 

The Printing Trades. Cleveland, 1916. 95 p. 

Snedden, Weeks and Cubberley. Vocational Education. Boston, 

1912. 208 p. 
Stevens. Boys and Girls in Commercial Work. Cleveland, 1916. 

181 p. 
Vocational Guidance in Secondary Education. Bulletin, 1918, No. 

19. U. S. Bureau of Education. 
Weaver. Vocations for Girls. New York, 1913. 
Weyl. The New Democracy. New York, 1914. 370 p. 
Woolley, H. T. The Mind of a Boy. Survey, Vol. 2>7y PP- 122- 

125, Nov. 4, 1916. 

CHAPTER VII 

Ayres. School Buildings and Equipment. Cleveland, 1916. 

117 p. 
Bancroft. The Posture of School Children. New York, 1913. 

327 P- 
Cubberley. School Organization and Administration. New York, 

1916. 340 p. Chapter X. The School Plant. Pp. 229-268. 
Dresslar. American Schoolhouses. Bulletin, 1910, No. 5. U. S. 

Bureau of Education. 131 p. 

Rural Schoolhouses and Grounds. Bulletin, 19 14, No. 12. 

U. S. Bureau of Education. 162 pp. and illustrations. (Re- 
port on health problems by a joint committee of the National 
Council of Education and the American Medical Association.) 



Selected References 423 

Dresslar. School Hygiene. New York, 19 13. 369 p. Chapters 
III, IV, V, VI. 

Gregg. Landscape Development of Schoolgrounds. American 
City,January, 1916. 

Hartwell. Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan. Cleve- 
land, 1 91 6. 77 p. 

Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 
York, 19 1 8. 333 p. Chapter VI. The School Building. Pp. 

78-95- 
Rosenau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. New York, 1917. 

3rd edition. 1374 p. 
Safeguarding School Children from Fire. Boston, 1916. 54 p. 

Illus. National Fire Protective Association. 

CHAPTER VIII 

Baker. Classroom Ventilation and Respiratory Diseases Among 
School Children. New York, 1918. 10 p. 

Final Report of the Committee on Standard Methods for the Ex- 
amination of Air. Presented before the laboratory section, 
American Public Health Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 
27, 1916. Published in the American Journal of Public Health, 
Jan., 1917. 

Haldane. Organism and Environment — Breathing. New Haven, 
1917. 138 p. 

Hill, L. Stuffy Rooms. Popular Science Monthly, igi2. 390 p. 

Kingsley and Dresslar. Open-Air Schools. Bulletin, 1916, No. 
23. U. S. Bureau of Education. 283 p. Bibliography, 
pp. 271-280. 

Macfie. Air and Health. New York, 1909. 345 p. 

Report of the Chicago Commission on Ventilation. Chicago, 
1915. 99 p. 

Rosenau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. Pp. 746-766. 
(References) pp. 661-745. 

Thorndike and others. Ventilation in Relation to Mental Work. 
Columbia University, New York. Contributions to Educa- 
tion. Teachers' College Series, 1916. 83 p. 



424 Selected References 

Ward. Climate, Considered Especially in Relation to Man. 

New York, 1908. 372 p. 
Woodman and Norton. Air, Water and Food. New York, 1914. 

248 p. 

CHAPTER IX 

Burrage and Baily. School Sanitation and Decoration. New 
York, 1899. 191 p. 

Clark, Collins and Treadway. Rural School Sanitation, including 
physical and mental status of school children in Porter Co., 
Indiana. Washington, D. C. 19 16. U. S. Public Health 
Bulletin yy. 

Dresslar. School Hygiene. Chapters VII, VIII, IX, XXIV, 
XXV, XXVI. 

Gerhard. Guide to Sanitary Inspection. New York, 1909. 239 p. 

Sanitation of Public Buildings. New York, 1907. 262 p. 

King. Hygienic Conditions in Iowa Schools, a report on condi- 
tions in schools of 181 cities and towns in Iowa. Iowa City, 
1915- 36 P- University of Iowa Extension Bulletin, No. 11. 

Sedgwick. Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health. 
New York, 1914. 368 p. 

West. Child Care. Part I. Care of Children Series No. 3, 
Children's Bureau Publication, No. 30. U. S. Department of 
Labor. References on Sanitation and Household Economics, 
pp. 77-78. 

Whipple, G. C. How to Determine Relative Values in Sanita- 
tion. American City. May, 1914. 

CHAPTER X 

Claghorn. Juvenile Delinquency in Rural New York. Washing- 
ton, D. C, 1918. 199 p. Children's Bureau. U. S. Depart- 
ment of Labor. 

Davenport. The Origin and Control of Mental Defectiveness. 
Popular Science Monthly, Jan., 1912, pp. 87-90. 

Goddard. The Kallikak Family. New York, 1912. 121 p. 

Groszmann. The Exceptional Child. New York, 19 17. 764 p. 



Selected References 425 

Guyer. Being Well Born. Indianapolis, 1916. 374 p. 

Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. New York, 191 1. Vol. II. 
714 p. Chapter XL Special Child-Welfare Agencies Outside 
the School, pp. 72-149. 

Healy. The Individual Delinquent. Boston, 1915. 830 p. 

Holmes. Backward Children, Indianapolis, 1915. 247 p. 

Kellicott. The Social Direction of Human Evolution. New 
York, 191 1. 240 p. 

Mangold. Problems of Child Welfare. New York, 1914. 522 p. 
Bibliography. 

Mitchell. Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children. Cleve- 
land, 1916. 122 p. 

Wallin. Mental Health of the School Child. New Haven, 191 5. 

450 p. 
Walter. Genetics; an introduction to the study of heredity. 

New York, 19 14. 272 p. 
White. Principles of Mental Hygiene. New York, 1917. 323 p. 
Whitley. An Empirical Study of Certain Tests for Individual 

Differences. New York, 191 1. 146 p. 



CHAPTER XI 

Allen. Civics and Health. New York, 1909. 403 p. 

Ayres. Health Work in the Public Schools. Cleveland, 191 5. 

59 P- 
Cabot. A Layman's Handbook of Medicine. Boston, 1916. 

524 p. 
Chapin. Sources and Modes of Infection. New York, 1912. 

481 p. 
Gulick and Ayres. Medical Inspection of Schools. New York, 

1913. Russell Sage Foundation. 224 p. 

Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. New York, 191 1. Vol. II. 

714 p. Chapter XII, Preventive and Constructive Movements, 

pp. 150-222. 
Hoag and Terman. Health Work in the Schools. New York, 

1914. 321 p. 



426 Selected References 

MacNutt. A Manual for Health Officers. New York, 191 5. 
650 p. 

Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Transactions of the 
American Medical Association. Chicago, 111., 191 1. 264 p. 

Rapeer, ed. Educational Hygiene. New York, 19 15. 650 p. 

Roseneau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. Chapter I. Sec- 
tion H. Immunity. 

Sedgwick. Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health. 
New York, 1914. 368 p. 

West. Child Care. Part I. Care of Children Series, No. 3. 
Children's Bureau Publication No. 30. U. S. Department of 
Labor. References on Care and Hygiene of Children, pp. 75- 
y6; on Disease, p. yy. 

CHAPTER XII 

Allport. School Children's Eyes. Chicago. 11 p. American 

Medical Association. One of a series of Conservation of 

Vision pamphlets. 
Ayres. The Relation of Physical Defects to School Progress. 

New York, 1912. 12 p. Russell Sage Foundation. 
Best. The Deaf. New York, 1914. 340 p. 

The Blind. New York, 1919. 763 p. 

Dresslar. School Hygiene. Chapters XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII. 

New York. 
Hoag and Terman. Health Work in the Schools. New York, 

1914. 321 p. 
Kelynack. Defective Children. New York, 191 5. 462 p. 
Scripture. Stuttering and Lisping. New York, 1912. 251 p. 
Swift, W. B. Speech Defects in School Children. Boston, 1918. 

128 p. 
Terman. Hygiene of the School Child. Boston, 1914. 417 p. 

Bibliography. 

CHAPTER XIII 

Burnham. Mental Health for Normal Children. Mental Hygiene, 
Vol. II, No. I. January, 1918. Pp. 19-22. 



Selected References 427 

Norsworthy and Whitley. Psychology of Childhood. New York, 

1918. 375 p. Chapters II, III, IV. 
Shand. The Foundations of Character. New York, 1914. 532 p. 
Sisson. The Essentials of Character. New York, 191 5. 214 p. 

Chapters I and II. Native Tendencies and the Treatment of 

Native Tendencies. 
Thorndike. Educational Psychology. Vol. I. Original Nature 

of Man. New York, 1913. 327 p. Bibliography, pp. 313- 

318. 

CHAPTER XIV 

Bagley. School Discipline. New York, 191 5. 259 p. 
Bruce. Handicaps of Childhood. New York, 1917. 310 p. 
Forel. Nervous and Mental Hygiene. New York, 1907. 343 p. 
Groszmann. The Exceptional Child. New York, 1917. 764 p. 
Guthrie. Functional Nervous Disorders in Childhood. London, 

1909. 300 p. 
Harris. Nerves. New York, 19 13. 256 p. 
Jennings, Watson, Meyer, and Thomas. Suggestions of Modern 

Science Concerning Education. New York, 1917. 211 p. 

P. lOI. 
Morehouse. The Discipline of the School. New York, 1914. 

342 p. 
Rachford. Neurotic Disorders of Childhood, New York, 1905. 

440 p. 
Richardson. Psychology and Pedagogy of Anger. Baltimore, 

1918. 
Rosenau. Preventive Medicine and Hygiene. Chapter VI. Men- 
tal Hygiene, 331-359. Bibliography. 
Swift, E. J. Mind in the Making. New York, 1908. 329 p. 
White. Mental Hygiene of Childhood. Boston, 1919. 
Woodworth. Dynamic Psychology. New York, 1918. 210 p. 

See Chapter on Drive and Mechanism in Abnormal Behavior. 



428 Selected References 

CHAPTER XV 

Hall, G. S. Educational Problems. New York, 191 1. Chapter V. 
Moral Education. Chapter VI. Children's Lies, pp. 200-387. 
Healy. Honesty. Indianapolis, 191 5. 220 p. 

Mental Conflicts and Misconduct. Boston, 1917. 330 p. 

Jastrow. Character and Temperament. New York, 19 15. 596 p. 
O'Shea. Social Development and Education. New York, 1909. 

561 p. 
Sisson. The Essentials of Character. New York, 1915. 214 p. 
Ladd. The Secret of Personality. New York, 1918. 287 p. 
Swift, E. J. Youth and the Race. New York, 19 12. 342 p. 

CHAPTER XVI 

Binet. The Psychology of Reasoning. Chicago, 1912. 191 p. 
Bolton. Principles of Education. New York, 1910. 790 p. 

Chapter XXII. 
Dewey. How We Think. New York, 1910. 224 p. 
Gordon. Educational Psychology. New York, 1917. 294 p. 
Holt, E. B. The Freudian Wish. New York, 191 5. 208 p. 
Norsworthy. Psychology of Childhood. Chapters VI and X. 
Pillsbury. Psychology of Reasoning. New York, 191 0. 305 p. 

CHAPTER XVII 

Ayers. The Effect of Promotion Rates in School Efficiency. 
New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1913. 13 p. 

The Money Cost of Repetition versus the Money Saving 

through Acceleration. New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 
1912. 12 p. 

Baldwin. The Individual and Society. Boston, 191 1. 210 p. 

Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 
York, 1918. 333 p. Chapter VII. Grouping Pupils in 
Classes. 

Scott, C. A. Social Education. Boston, 1908. 300 p. 

Vincent. The Rivalry of Social Groups. Amer. Journal of So- 
ciology, Vol. XVI, pp. 469-484. 



Selected References 429 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Bagley. Classroom Management. New York, 1912. 322 p. 

Chapter IV. 
Bennet. School Efficiency. New York, 19 18. 374 p. Chapter 

XVI. The Daily Schedule. Pp. 167-193. 
Colgrove. The Teacher and the School. New York, 1910. 

Chapter XII. 
Hall-Quest. Supervised Study. New York, 1916. 433 p. 

Chapter IV. Proper Conditions of and Hindrances to Stucfy, 

Chapters VII and VIII, Methods of Studying. 
McMurry. How to Study and Teaching How to Study. Boston, 

1909. 324 p. 
Meumann. The Psychology of Learning. New York, 1913. 

393 P- Observational Learning, pp. 49-137. Associational 

Learning, pp. 138-364. 
Miller. The Psychology of Thinking. 1909. 
Sears. Classroom Organization and Control. New York, 1918. 

Chapter XII. 
Wilson. The Motivation of School Work. Boston. 249 p. 

CHAPTER XIX 

Acher. Spontaneous Constructions and Primitive Activities of 

Children. Amer. Journal of Psychology, 1910, 1 14-150. 
Dewey. Interest and Effort in Education. Boston. loi p. 
Hall, G. S. Recreation and Reversion. Pedagogical Seminary, 

Vol. XXII, pp. 510-520. 
Jennings and others. Suggestions of Modern Science Concerning 

Education, p. 159. 
Lee. Play in Education. New York, 191 5. 500 p. 
Norsworthy. Psychology of Childhood. Chapter XII. 
Palmer. Play Life in the First Eight Years. New York, 1916. 

281 p. 
Patrick. Psychology of Relaxation. New York, 1916. 280 p 
Scott. Increasing Human Efficiency in Business. New York, 

1914- 339 P- 



430 Selected References 

Strayer and Norsworthy. How to Teach. New York, 1917. 

297 p. Chapter IX. The Meaning of Play in Education. 
Waddle. Introduction to 'Child Psychology. New York, 1918. 

317 p. Chapter VI. The Play of Children. Bibliography. 

CHAPTER XX 

Baldwin, B. T. Physical Growth and School Progress. Bulletin, 
1914, No. 10. U. S. Bureau of Education. 215 p. Bibli- 
ography (336 titles), pp. 189-212. 

Boughton. Household Arts and School Lunches. Cleveland, 
1916. 170 p. 

Bryant. School Feeding; Its history and practice at home and 
abroad. Philadelphia, 1913. 345 p. 

Claparede. Experimental Pedagogy and the Psychology of the 
Child. New York, 191 1. 332 p. Rest and Sleep, pp. 293- 

317- 
DeManaceine. Sleep, Its Physiology, Pathology, Hygiene, and 

Psychology. London, 1897. 341 p. 
Fisher and Fisk. How to Live. New York, 1917. 345 p. 
Guthrie. Functional Nervous Disorders in Childhood. Chapter 

VIII. Disorders of Sleep. 
Lusk. The Fundamental Basis of Nutrition. New Haven, 1914. 

62 p. 
McCollum. The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition, The Use of 

Foods for the Preservation of Vitality and Health. New 

York, 1918. 199 p. Bibliography. 
Rose. Feeding the Family. New York, 1916. 
Sidis. Experimental Study of Sleep. Boston, 1909. 106 p. 
Terman. The Hygiene of the School Child. Chapter XX. The 

Sleep of School Children. Bibliography. 
West. Child Care. Part I. Care of Children Series No. 3. 

Children's Bureau Publication, No. 30. U. S. Department of 

Labor. References on Milk and Other Foods, p. 76. 



Selected References 431 

CHAPTER XXI 

Bancroft. Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gym- 
nasium. New York, 1914. 456 p. 

Bancroft and Pulvermacher. Handbook of Athletic Games. 
New York, 19 16. 62^ p. 

Clark. Physical Training for the Elementary Schools. New 
York, 1917. 415 p. 

Curtis. Education Through Play. New York, 1915. 359 p. 

Dresslar. School Hygiene. Chapter II. 

Edgerton. The Playground and Its Place in the Administration 
of a City. Playground Extension Leaflet, No. 59. Playground 
Association of America, i Madison Avenue, New York City. 

Johnson. Education Through Recreation. Cleveland, 1916. 94 p. 
Education by Games and Plays. New York, 1907. 234 p. 
Bibliography, pp. 223-228. 

Kingsland. The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games. New 
York, 1913. 610 p. 

List of References on Play and Playgrounds. Literary Leaflet 
No. 3, April, 1919. II p. U. S. Bureau of Education. 

Rowe. The Physical Nature of the Child and How to Study It. 
New York, 1900. 207 p. Bibliography. 

Tyler. Growth and Education. Boston, 1907. 294 p. Bibli- 
ography pp. 270-291. 

CHAPTER XXII 

Ayres and McKinnie. The Public Library and the PubHc 
Schools. Cleveland, 1916. 

Baden-Powell. Scouting for Boys. London, 1910. 320 p. 

Educational Possibilities of Boy Scouts' Training. Nine- 
teenth Century. London, 191 1. Pp. 293-305. 

Bates. Pageants and Pageantry. New York, 1912. 294 p. 

Cabot. Volunteer Help to the Schools. New York, 19 14. 140 p. 

Chubb. P. Festivals and Plays. New York, 1912. 402 p. Bib- 
liography. 

Forbush. The Coming Generation. New York, 1912. 402 p. 



43^ Selected References 

Greene. Among School Gardens. New York, 1910. 388 p. 

Illus. 
Jackson. A Community Center. New York, 1918. 159 p. 
Judd. Introduction to the Scientific Study of Education. New 

York, 1918. 333 p. Chapter X. 
King. Social Aspects of Education. New York, 1912. 425 p. 

Chapter VIII, The School Garden, its educational and social 

value, with bibliography. Pp. 129-143. 
Miller. School Gardens in Relation to the Three R's. Educa- 
tion, 1905, pp. 531-542. 
New Possibilities in Education. The Annals of the American 

Acad, of Pol. and Social Science. Vol. LXVII, Sept., 1916. 
Patri. A Schoolmaster of the Great City. New York, 1917. 

222 p. 
Perry. Educational Extension. Cleveland, 19 16. 

Community Center Activities. New York, 1916. 127 p. 

Russell Sage Foundation. 

The Wider Use of the School Plant. Department of 

Child Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation, New York City. 

Significant School Extension Records. " How to Secure 



Them." Bulletin No. 41, 1915. U. S. Bureau of Education. 

Randall. Educative and Economic Possibilities of School-Di- 
rected Home-Gardening in Richmond, Indiana. Bulletin, 
1917, No. 6. U. S. Bureau of Education. 

Russell, J. E. Scouting Education. Teachers College Record, 
January, 1917. 

School Savings Banks. Report of Special Committee, New York 
Board of Education. New York, 1914. 

Tanner. The Child. Chicago, 1915. 534 p. Chapter XXI, 
The Child in Democracy, pp. 513-525. Bibliography. 

Ward, E. J. The Social Center. New York, 1913. 359 p. 



INDEX 



Abbott, E., 74, 75, yy, 78. 

Absence, causes of, yz ff- 

Accelerants and retardants, 147. 

Activity, types of, 330-343; con- 
structive, of children, 62. 

Adenoids, 190, 192. 

Age-height-wreight table, for boys, 
353; for girls, 354. 

Agencies auxiliary to the school, 
380 ff. 

Agriculture, 17-19; study of, 29- 
35. 

Aid to schools, federal, 27 ff. 

Aim of education, Americaniza- 
tion as, 9-17; according to Con- 
stitution of 1780, Massachusetts, 
2(i; according to Milton, 368; 
care of offspring as, 5 ; content, 
5 ; economic independence as, 5 ; 
formal, 8; literacy in English 
as minimum, 9, 11-16; political, 
5; social, 5. 

Aims of education, major life in- 
terests as, 5 ; maximum, 8, 21- 
22; minimum, 8, 20; achieve- 
ment, 22; leisure, 21; recreation, 
22, 361 ff. ; order of importance 
of, 5; summary of, 21-22. 

Air, clean, 119; fresh, ii4ff. ; 132; 
constituents of atmospheric, 
117; experiments on, 118; harm- 
ful gases in, 119; oxygen con- 
tent of, 117. 

Air movement, 122, 127. 

Alabama, 11, 42, 69; rural school 
attendance in, 76. 

Allegiance of the spirit, 11-12. 

Alternation, method of, in school 
programs, 307. 



American children, future of, 17- 
19. ^ 

American House, 16. 

Americanization, 15 ff. 

Amusement, 343. 

Anaemia, 198; and dullness, 199. 

Angell, E. D., 373. 

Anger, 239-240. 

Animals and flowers, children 
and, 227. 

Appendix, 397. 

Appropriations, federal, 30 ff. ; 
state, for weak districts, yjt 68. 

Arizona, 11, 42, 69. 

Arkansas, 11, 42, 69. 

Association, 315; parent-teacher, 
381-382. 

Attendance, compulsory, dy ff. ; 
regular, 80; laws, general effect 
of, 84; officers, support of, 80. 

Attention, and interest, 275; and 
stillness, 276; attitude of, 261; 
child's, 262 ; concentrated, 263 ; 
control of, 275 ; distributed, 263 ; 
divided, 279; inner and outer 
factors of, 276. 

Attitude, teacher's, to behavior of 
children, 224. 

Attitudes, cheerful, 259; child's, 
of attention, 262; favorable, to 
work of the school, 259; inde- 
cision, 280 ; in thinking, 262 ; 
of attention, 261 ; of concentra- 
tion, 263; of harmony, 260; of 
inquiry, 270. 

Ayres, L. P., 88, 105, 193. 



Backward children, 144. 



433 



434 



Index 



Bacteria, 167-176; discovery of, 
169; modes of transmission, 171. 

Baden-Powell, Agnes, and Sir 
Robert, 390. 

Baltimore, 47. 

Bancroft, J. H., 370. 

Baseball, Z7Z, Z7^- 

Batavia plan, 299. 

Bennett, H. E., 181, 321. 

Berry, C. S., 147. 

Blackboards, iii. 

Bodine, 195. 

Body heat, excess of, 121. 

Bonser, F. G., 297. 

Boston, 47, 371. 

Boy Scouts, 389. 

Boys, height and weight table for, 

353- 
Breckenridge, S. P., 74, 75, yy, 78. 
Bruce, H. A., 361. 
Brushing teeth, 193. 
Bryant, L. S., 198. 
Buffalo, 47. 
Buildings, score card for city, 414, 

415 ; types of, 96. 
Burnham, W. H., 211. 
Burris, W. P., 327. 

California, 11, 42, 68, 72. 
Calvert, W. J, 180. 
Cambridge plan, 299. 
Carbon-dioxide content of the air, 

117; of the lungs, 118; function 

of, 117. 
Care of children, 5, 384-386. 
Cases in discipline, study of, 2:^2 ff. 
Certificates, employment, 86. 
Chairs, movable tables and, no. 
Chapin, C. V., 179. 
Chicago, 181, 185, 371. 
Chicken-pox, 166, 167, 180. 
Childhood, conservation of, 50 ff. ; 

meaning, 50. 
Child labor, effects of, 52 ff. ; in 

cities, 57, 59; i" country, 58; 



laws, 54 ff.; school controlled 
enterprises vs., 65; in England, 
53. 54; remedial legislation, 60. 

Children, backward, 144; classifi- 
cation of, 142; comparison of 
wages of, 93-94; city and coun- 
try, 150-152; constructive ac- 
tivities of, 62; delinquent, 153- 
156; dependent, 156; difference 
between, due to economic and 
social conditions, 152; dull, 
183 ff. ; effect of ventilation on 
health of, 133; fears of, 231 ff. ; 
feeble-minded, 143; immigrants, 
16; initial equipment of, 210; 
neglected, 156; of pre-school 
age, 210 ff., 384-386; relation of, 
to illiteracy, 16, 68, 69; state's 
guardianship of, 155 ; well-nour- 
ished, 352; work of, under four- 
teen, 61. 

Child welfare, 50 ff. ; a universal 
interest, 395. 

Cincinnati, 27, 41, 187, 388, 405. 

Civics clubs, 387. 

Civil War, rejections for service 
in, 162. 

Clark, E., 46, 47. 

Class criticism, value of, 293. 

Classrooms, air space of, 106; 
comfort, no; floor space, 106; 
heating of, 114 ff.; lighting of, 
107; safety, 109; standard di- 
mensions of, 108. 

Class standards, 294. 

Class work, cooperative, 295 ; in- 
dividual and group in, 291 ; in- 
tensive, 296. 

Claxton, P. P., 394. 

Cleaning standards, 137-138. 

Cleansing teeth, 193. 

Cleveland, 46, 47, ^yy. 

Colds, causes of, 130. 

Colorado, 11, 29, 42, 69, y2, yz, 76, 
202. 



Index 



435 



Commission on ventilation, Chi- 
cago, 132; New York, 130. 
Communicable disease, warfare 

against, 165. 
Concentration, how weakened, 

277; increase of power of, 279. 
Connecticut, 11, 42, 68, 76, 202. 
Consciousness of weakness, effect 

of, in children, 186. 
Conservation of resources, 2 ff., 

50 ff. 
Consolidated schools, 399-400. 
Constants and variables in school 

management, 290. 
Constructive activity in play and 

work, 340. 
Constructive use of knowledge, 

274. 
Continuation schools, 34. 
Control of schools, local and state, 

24-25, 67. 
Cooperation between attendance 

department and teachers, 79; 

between home and school, 381. 
Cooperative schools, 34. 
Corporal punishment, law on, 231. 
Cost of education in United 

States, 39; in cities, 47; in 

states, 42. 
Courses, differentiation of, 404- 

406. 
Courtis, S. A., 297. 
Crowder, Major General E. H., 

164, 189. 
Crowder, T. R., 123. 
Crowding in the elementary 

school, 48. 
Cubberley, E. P., 29, 108, 299. 
Cupboards and lockers in primary 

rooms, III. 
Curtis, H. C, 364, 379. 



Death-rate in United States, 164. 

Defects, and retardation, 207; in 
circulatory system, 198-199; 
mental consequences of physical, 
185-186; of digestive system, 
192-198; of respiratory organs, 
190-192 ; of sense, 199 ff. ; 
speech, 204-208. 

DeGroot, E. B., 370. 

Delaware, 11, 42, 69, 76. 

Delinquency, penalty for contrib- 
uting to, 157. 

Delinquents, 153-156. 

Democracy, units of, 394. 

Departmental programs, 326. 

Dependent children, 156. 

Desks, adjustable, no. 

Desire of child to earn money, 64; 
to be a man, 249. 

Detroit, 47. 

Development, direction of, 221 ; 
of likes and dislikes, 227; steps 
in, of thinking, 269. 

Diphtheria, 162, 163, 166, 167, 169, 
171, 175, 178, 179, 180, 182. 

Discipline, fear as means of, 236. 

Disease, course of communicable, 
168; death-causing varieties of, 
165-166. 

Diseased teeth, 192. 

Diseases, of school children, 166- 
167; seasonal, 176. 

Disinfection, 139. 

Distribution of school funds, 48. 

Dresslar, F. B., 108. 

Drinking-water, 136. 

Drudgery of work, relation of sci- 
entific interest to, 344. 

Dullness, 183 ff. 

Duration of life, 165. 

Dust, 172-173- 



Dawdling, 344. 
Daydreaming, 254. 
Dealey, W. H., 372. 



Economic independence, 5. 
Economy of prevention, 166, 182. 
Education, aims of, 5; compul- 



436 



Index 



sory, 6y^.; cost of, 39; federal 
aid for, 27 ff. ; land grants in 
support of, 27 ff. ; local senti- 
ment for, 25 ; means of, 23 ; 
medical diagnosis and, 187; na- 
tional sentiment for, 25 ff. ; scope 
in Massachusetts Constitution 
of 1780, 26. 

Educational guidance, 85. 

Education and citizenship, 26. 

Efficiency, group, 288-290, 370; 
levels of, 183. 

Egbert, S., 162. 

Elaboration, 311-315- 

Elementary schools, 398-399 ; 
sports in, 374; crowding, 48. 

Eliot, C. W., 21. 

Elliott, E. C, 29. 

Emerson, Harrington, 4. 

Emotional excess, 230. 

Emotion, and object, 227; contin- 
uity of, 224; displacement of, 
225; study of, 222. 

Employment certificates, 86. 

Enterprises, school-controlled, 65. 

Environment, of the school, 103, 
104 ; country and city, 150-152. 

Equipment, iii; for playground, 
370; pupil's initial, 210. 

Evening schools, 34, 61. 

Examination, physical, 187-189. 

Exemption from school attend- 
ance, 71-73. • 

Expenses, distribution of, 39-42 ; 
of special schools, 40; total, per 
pupil, 47. 

Experiments in ventilation, 118. 

Expression, 311-317. 

Eyestrain, symptoms of, 203. 

Facing problems, 282. 

" Faddism," educational, 19-21. 

Falsifying, 255-256. 

Family, relation of, to school, 288. 

Fear, as a means of discipline, 



236; children conceal their, 235; 

dissolved by understanding, 

237-238; excessive, 234. 
Feeble-minded, grades of, 143; 

number of, 143. 
Feeding school children, 196. 
Fire prevention, 109. 
Fisher, I., 165. 
Fitness, physical, as a patriotic 

duty, 5, 368. 
Fitzpatrick, F. W., no. 
Floors, 137-139. 
Floor space, 106. 
Florida, 11, 42, 69. 
Foght, H. W., 39. 
Food, 348; and body heat, 120; in 

prophylaxis, 348. 
Food campaigns, 350. 
Food habits, 352. 
Freedom, limitations of, 284; of 

initiative, 335. 
Full Time schools, 34. 
Funds, sources of, school, 27^.; 

method of distribution of, 48; 

permanent state, 29. 
Furniture, school, 110-112. 

Games, group, 370, 375-378. 

Gary, Ind., 327, 378. 

Gases, harmful, 119. 

Georgia, 11, 42, 69. 

Germs, discovery of specific, 169. 

Gibbons, C. F., 58. 

Girl Scouts, 390-392. 

Goddard, H. H., 144. 

Good and evil, 228-230. 

Graded schools, 399. 

Grading, promotion and, 298. 

Groos, K., 375. 

Grounds, care of, 101-108; sani- 
tation of, 135; size of, 102. 

Group, teacher's duty to, 286. 

Group activity, training for, 287. 

Group appreciations, 295 ; consis- 
tency, 297, 298; efficiency, 288- 



Index 



437 



290; organizations, 300; prep- 
aration, 296. 

Guardianship of children, state's, 
155. 

Guthrie, L. G., 235. 



Habits in eating, 352. 

Haines, T. H., 145, 

Haldane, J. S., 118. 

Hall, G. S., 63, 234. 

Hall-Quest, A, L., 2)^6. 

Health, 5 ; and the state, 159. 

Health monitors, 140, 

Health work as a national service, 

189. 
Hearing, defective, and dullness, 

200; symptoms of, 201. 
Hearing test, 200. 
Heating, requirements for 114- 

116; methods of, 128-129. 
Heating systems, 128. 
Height-weight-age table, for boys, 

353 ; for girls, 354- 
High schools, classes of, 401-402. 
Hill, E. v., 132. 
Hill, L., 119. 
Hoag, E. B., 180. 
Hocking, 357. 
Holt, L. E., 191, 192, 355. 
Home as a source of projects, 

384. 
Home conditions and school at- 
tendance, 74. 
Home cooperation with school, 

381. 
Hugo, Victor, 196. 
Humidity, relative, 120, 128-129. 
Huntington, E., 124, 
Hygiene, of character, 347; of 

mind, 283; practice of personal, 

139. 

Idaho, II, 29, 42, 69. 

Ideals, imitation of, 252-253; of 



achievement, 22; of recreation, 
21. 

Idiots, 143, 

Illinois, II, 29, 42, 69, 304, 406. 

Illiteracy, age groups, 12-13; by 
states, 11; in America, 9-17; in 
Europe, 10; juvenile, 68, 69. 

Illusion in play, 338-339. 

Imagination, and character, 251- 
252; critical point of, 253-254. 

Imbeciles, 143, 146. 

Immigration law, of 1917, 12. 

Immunity from communicable 
disease, 173. 

Impression, 3ii-3i5- 

Impulses, native, 211-221; uni- 
versal play, 366. 

Incapable, the, and the unwilling, 
184. 

Indecision, as reflected in school 
work, 280; home training in, 
281-282. 

Indiana, 11, 42, 69. 

Indianapolis, 47. 

Indifference, and dullness, 184; lo- 
cal, to schools, 24-25. 

Individual, loss of, in group, 297. 

Individual vs. class teaching, 292. 

Industrial training, 18-19; stages 
of development in, 64. 

Infant mortality, 164. 

Influenza, 167, 180-182. 

Inhibition, excessive, 242-243. 

Inlets and outlets, effect of loca- 
tion of, 127. 

Instability, nervous, 240-241. 

Interest, and attention, 276; po- 
litical, 5; social, 5- 

Interests, of leisure, 7; play- 
ground, Z70^. 

Interests of life, major, 5- 

Iowa, II, 42, 69. 

Jackson, H. E., 392. 
Jefferson, T., 26, 394. 



438 



Index 



Jersey City, 47. 

Joffe, E., 76. 

Johnson, G. E., Z7Z, 374, Z77- 

Juvenile disorderly person, 72. 

Kansas, 11, 43, 69, 136. 

Kansas City, 47. 

Kentucky, 11, 14, 43, 69; "moon- 
light" schools of, 14-15. 

Kimber, D. C, 198. 

Kindergarten, 391 ; merging of, 
and elementary school, 398. 

Klapper, P., 79. 

Knowledge, constructive use of, 
274; of concrete things, 20-21. 

Koehler, G., 180-191. 

Koplik's spots, 179. 

Kotelman, L., 367. 

Laboratory in schools, 382-384. 

Land grants, 2y ff . ; in support of 
higher education, 28, 29. 

Languages spoken by foreign chil- 
dren in American schools, 16. 

Law, Morrill, 29, 30; agricultural 
extension (Smith-Lever), 31; 
immigration, 12 ; naturalization, 
13; vocational education (Smith- 
Hughes), 32-36. 

Laws, against contributing to de- 
linquency, 157; against prema- 
ture withdrawal from school, 
86-88; child labor, 54-56; defin- 
ing delinquent, dependent, and 
neglected children, 156; immi- 
gration, 12; mandatory and per- 
missive health service, 160; 
naturalization, 13; on construc- 
tion of school buildings, 105 ff.; 
on corporal punishment, 231 ; 
on environment of schools, 103- 
105; on fire prevention, 109; on 
length of school term, 68-69 5 on 
nuisances, 137; on sanitation, 
136 ff.; on size of grounds, 102; 



on ventilation and heating, 114- 
116. 

Laws compelling school attend- 
ance, 67 ; causes for exemption 
from, 71; defiance of, 84; gen- 
eral effect of, 84; penalty, 71; 
poverty as cause of exemption 
from, 73. 

Leagues, Little Mother's, 384- 
386. 

Legislation against child labor, 60. 

Letters, standard size of, 203. 

Lisping (stammering), 205-206. 

Little Mother's Leagues, 384-386. 

Lloyd-George, 2. 

Location of school buildings, 96. 

Locke, J., 359- 

Locke on sleep, 359-361. 

Lombard, 395. 

Los Angeles, 47. 

Louisiana, 11, 43, 69. 

Louisville, 351. 

Lutz, R. R., 21. 

Macmillan, D. P., 195. 

Maine, 11, 43, 69. 

Malnutrition, 194; and dullness, 

195. 
Manaceine, M. de, 361. 
Maryland, 11, 43, 68, 76, 102. 
Massachusetts, 11, 13-14, 43, 68, 

76, 102, 202; Constitution of 

1780, 26. 
Measles, 163, 166, 167, 178-180, 

182. 
Medical diagnosis and education, 

187. 

Memory, for words, 267; for 
words as means to higher ends, 
267; for facts, 268; for rela- 
tions, 268. 

Mental consequences of physical 
defects, 185-186. 

Mental hygiene, play, as, 337. 

Mental inefficiency, causes of, 264. 



Index 



439 



Mental parallels of physical types 

of work, 345. 
Mental power, how weakened, 

264-265. 
Mental strength, chief sign of, 

277. 
Mental types of stutterers, 207. 
Metschnikoff, 175. 
Michigan, 11, 43, 69, 73. 
Milk as food, 350-351. 
Miller, H. A, 16. 
Milwaukee, 47. 
Mind, resources of, 2; right use 

of, 260. 
Minneapolis, 47. 

Minnesota, 11, 29, 43, 69, 105, 197. 
Mississippi, 11, 43, 69. 
Missouri, 11, 43, 69. 
Money cost of disease in United 

States, 165. 
Money, desire to earn, 64. 
Monitors, health, 140. 
Montana, 11, 43, 68; rating card, 

408. 
" Moonlight schools," 14-15. 
Moral delinquents, types of, 154. 
Moral imbeciles, 146. 
Moral influence of the school, 154. 
Morons, 143. 
Mortality, infant, 164. 
Mothers' pensions, 73. 
Mouth-breathing, 191. 
Mumps, 166, 167, 180. 

Naturalization laws, 13. 

Nebraska, 11, 29, 43, 69. 

Needs, modern, of the school, 
380 ff. _ 

Nervous instability, 240-241 ; influ- 
ence of teacher upon, 241-242. 

Neural basis of work and play, 
51. 

Nevada, 11, 43, 69, 73. 

New Hampshire, 11, 43, 69. 

New Jersey, 11, 43, 68. 



Newmayer, S. W., 191, 194, 202, 
203. 

New Mexico, 11, 29, 43, 69. 

New Orleans, 47. 

New York, 11, 14, 43, 68, 87, 370. 

New York City, 77, 78, 93, I33, 
197, 373- 

Nitrogen of the air, function in 
respiration, 117. 

Non-attendance, legal and illegal, 
73 fif. ; in rural communities, 
causes of, 76; trivial reasons 
for, 79; through process of 
transfer from one school to an- 
other, 78; corrective procedure 
in, 81 ; preventive measures, 82. 

North Carolina, 11, 43, 69, 73. 

North Dakota, 11, 30, 43, 69, 73, 
102. 

Nuisances, 137. 

Occupations, 17-19, 56, 92, 93. 
Ohio, II, 27, 28, 29, 36, 48, 68, 72, 

73, 86, 102, 105, 109, 136, 137, 

160, 399, 400, 401. 
Oklahoma, 11, 29, 43, 58, 69, 73. 
Open-air conditions, 132. 
Open-window ventilation, 131, 134, 

140. 
Oral recitation, original function 

of, 309- 
Ordinance of 1785 and 1787, 27. 
Oregon, 11, 43, 69, 76. 
Organization, of play, 371 ff. ; of 

school program, 319, 323-325- 
Organizations, group, 300; the 

Scouts, 388. 
Outside temperature, 124. 
Oxygen, content, of air, 117; of 

the lungs, 117; function of, 117. 

Palmer, G. T., 130. 
Parents, how to win, 381. 
Parent-teacher association, 381- 
3S2. 



440 



Index 



Part Time schools, 34. 

Pasteur, 174, 182. 

Patri, A., 382. 

Pediculosis, 182. 

Penalty for illegal non-attend- 
ance, 71. 

Pennsylvania, 11, 43, 68, 73. 

Perkins, D. H., 99. 

Personal hygiene, practice of, 139. 

Personality, of teacher, 113; dan- 
ger in strong, 286; sense of, in 
child, 234. 

Physical defects, and efficiency, 
183; mental consequences of, 
185. 

Physical training, exercises in, 
369-370. 

Pittsburgh, 47. 

Play, and stages of self-develop- 
ment, 328-329. 

Play census, 376. 

Playground interests, 370. 

Play illusion, 338-3391 impulse, 
366. 

Play instinct, 366. 

Play, plot-interest in, 331 ; as men- 
tal hygiene, 337; as practice, 
364; benefits of, 363-365; char- 
acteristics of, 335-337; organi- 
zation of, 371; in city, 2>7Z\ in 
country, 372. 

Play values, scale of, 375. 

Play, work and, differences be- 
tween, 329. 

Plot-interest, in play, 331 ; height- 
ened by competition, 334. 

Political interest, 5. 

Poverty as cause for exemption 
from school attendance, 7Z- 

Practice as play, 343. 

Premature legal withdrawal from 

school, 88-90. 
Prevention, economy of, 166, 182. 
Program making, principles of, 
303- 



Program, organization of, 319- 
326, requirements, 302, 317-319; 
rural school, 304. 

Programs, departmental, 326; 
flexible, 317 ff.; formal recita- 
tion, in school, 308. 

Projects, home as the source of, 
381, 384. 

Promotion, and grading, 298; ap- 
pointed times for, 298. 

Prophylaxis, 347 ff. 

Public health movement, 159. 

Public opinion as influencing edu- 
cation, 24 ff, 

Pueblo plan, 299. 

Pupils, number, per teacher, 42- 
44; unwilling, 184, 226. 

Questioning, tone and tempo of, 

271. 
Quitter, the, 335. 

Rachitic effects of malnutrition, 
195. 

Reactions, personal, to behavior of 
children, 224. 

Recitation, as related to subject- 
matter, 310; cross-purposes in 
the modern, 316; formal, 308; 
original function of the oral, 

309. 

Recreation, 363 ; ideals of, 21 ; 
value of open-air, 365. 

Red corpuscles, function of, 198. 

Rejections for military service, 
162, 189. 

Requirements, of a modern pro- 
gram, 317; for a standard 
school, 408 ff. 

Resources, national, 2-4; conser- 
vation of, 3-4. 

Responsibility in play, 335. 

Responsibility of state for health 
of pupils, 159. 



Index 



441 



Retardants and accelerants, 147. 

Retardation and physical defects, 
183 ff. 

Rhode Island, 11, 30, 43, 68. 

Robertson, J. D., 180, 181. 

Rosenau, M. J., 108, 117, 119, 129, 
130, 166, 179, 201. 

Rural communities, non-attend- 
ance in, 76. 

Russell, J. E., 388. 

San Francisco, 47. 

St. Louis, 47, 206. 

Sanitation, 135 ff. 

Sargent, D. A., 367. 

Scarlet fever, 163, 166, 167, 178, 
180, 182. 

School, environment of, 103, 104; 
moral influence of, 154; an or- 
ganic unit, 285. 

Schools, Continuation, 34-35 ; Co- 
operative, 34; Evening, 34, 61; 
federal aid to, 27 ff. ; Full Time, 
34; "moonlight," 14-15; neg- 
lected, 24-25; of Germany, 2; 
Part Time, 34; special, expenses 
of, 40; Trade Extension, 34; 
Trade Preparatory, 34, 

School buildings, location of, 96. 

School census, 72. 

School children, future of, 17; dis- 
eases of, 166-167. 

School day, work of, 302 ff. 

School diseases, 166-167. 

School expenses in United States, 
39 ff. ; in the states, 42 ff., 48. 

School feeding, 196. 

School fires, 109. 

School fun Is, distribution of, 38 ff. 

School gardening, 386. 

School grounds, size of, 102, 140. 

School health work, 160; a per- 
manent national service, 189. 

School housekeeping, 135 ff. 

School hygiene, a part of the pub- 



lic health movement, 161; the 
professions in, 160. 

School lands, 27 ff. 

School needs, 381. 

School program, 304 ff. ; flexible, 
317 ff. 

Schoolroom, standard atmospheric 
conditions of, 132; dimensions 
of, 108; air space, 106; floor 
space, 105; lighting, 107; num- 
ber of pupils per, 109. 

School savings bank, 387. 

School standards, 406 ff. 

School work, aims at individual, 
8; essential factors of, 311-317; 
formal aim of, 8; higher values 
of, 94; how to vitalize, 346; in- 
decision as reflected in, 280; 
money value of, 92-94. 

Score card, for city schools, 414; 
for rural schools, 408 ff.; for 
village and consolidated schools, 
415 ff. 

Scouts organizations, 388; boys, 
389-390; girls, 390-392. 

Seasonal diseases, 176 ff. 

Seattle, 47. 

Sedgwick, W. T., 161, 166, 169, 
173, 174, 176. 

Self as the object of thought, 265; 
stages of development, 328-329. 

Self-control, instinctive support 
in, 248-249; means of, 247. 

Self-controlled, The, 246. 

Senger, H., 16. 

Sense defects, 199 ff. 

Sense hunger, 217. 

Serums, 175. 

Service in U. S. army, rejections 
for, 162; causes of rejections, 
189. 

Shaw, E. R., no, 127. 

Sidis, B., 362. 

Sleep, 355; amount of, 356; and 
home conditions, 358; effect of 



442 



Index 



too much, 361 ; Locke on, 359- 
360; quality of, 357. 

Snedden, D., 63. 

Social center, 392-394, 

Social elements in the formal reci- 
tation, 292. 

Social interests, 5, 112. 

South Carolina, 11, 43. 

South Dakota, 11, 29, 43. 

Speech defectives, number of, 206. 

Speech defects, 204-208; and re- 
tardation, 207 ; cure of, 207. 

Spencer, H., 8. 

Sports in the schools, 374. 

Stecher, L. I., 129. 

Stewart, C. W., 15. 

Strayer, G. D., 414. 

Study, directed, 326. 

Stutterers, 206; mental types of, 
208. 

Sutherland. A., 288. 

Symbols, emotions attaching to, 
228. 

Systems, heating, 128. 

Tables and chairs, no. 

Taylor, F. I., 56. 

Teacher, as counselor in voca- 
tional guidance, 91 ; financial re- 
turn to, per pupil, 45 ; number 
of pupils per, 42-44; relation of, 
to school, 285. 

Teachers, salaries of, 38-39- 

Teeth, 192; and retardation, 193. 

Temperature stimulation, chang- 
ing rate of, 123; outside, 124. 

Tennessee, 11, 43, 69, 7Z, Z7^' 

Terman, L. M., 145, 180, 357- 

Texas, 11, 43- 

Thinking, bodily position in, 262; 
constructive type of, 272 ff. ; ob- 
ject of, 26s; practice of, 266; 
substitutes for, 266; steps in de- 
velopment of, 269; spirit of in- 
quiry essential to, 270. 



Time distribution in daily pro- 
gram, 303. 

Time units, 402-404. 

Todd, J. B., 99. 

Toilet accommodations, 136. 

Transmission of disease germs, 
modes of, 171. 

Treadway, W. L., 145. 

Truancy, 76; causes of, yy. 

Tuberculosis, 166, 169, 171, 180. 

Tyler, J. M., 348. 

Typhoid fever, 162, 171. 

Understanding, fears and troubles 

dissolved by, 237-238. 
United States flag, 112, 
Units of democracy, 394. 
Unwilling pupils, 184, 226. 
Utah, II, 43, 69, 7z. 

Vaccination for typhoid, 162. 
Ventilation, and sanitation, 136; 

effect of, on school children, 

133; factors of, 116; types of, 

131, 134- 
Vermont, 11, 43, 69, 202. 
Virginia, 11, 43. 
Vision, 202; conservation of, 204; 

symptoms of defective, 203. 
Vision test, Snellen card, 203. 
Vital resistance to disease, 174; 

lowering of, 130, 174. 
Vocational education, 32-36. 
Vocational guidance, 90, 

Wallin, J. E. W., 206. 

Ward, E. J., 394. 

Warner, F., 195. 

Washington, D. C, 47. 

Washington, G., 26. 

Washington State, ii, 29, 43, 68, 

102. 
Watt, H. J., 269. 
Weight-height-age table, for boys, 

353 ; for girls, 354. 



Index 



443 



Wells, F. L., 254. Wood, H. B, 162. 
West, M., 395. Work, of children under four- 
White corpuscles as source of re- teen, 61; of the school day, 310; 

sistance to disease, 175. mental parallels of physical 

Whooping-cough, 166, 167, 179, types of, 345; right and wrong 

180, 182. conditions of, 63. 

Wilson, W., 394. Work and play, neural basis of, 

Window space, 107. 51; types of, 330 ff. 

Winslow, L. F., 146. World War, 2-3, 9, 39, 164, 189, 

Wisconsin, 11, 43, 68, 166. 349, 368. 

Withdrawal from school, illegal, Wyoming, 11, 29, 43, 69. 

87; premature legal, 188-90. 



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